Schools

Brother Rice Students in Running for National Merit Scholarships

Three seniors at Brother Rice earn special recognition from the National Merit Scholarship Program and four others receive commendations for their academic work.

Brother Rice High School announced that two seniors are semi-finalists for the National Merit Scholarship, and a third remains a candidate for the National Achievement Scholarship.

Tomas Espinosa and Sammy Stevens scored in the top 1 percent in the nation on the 2012 Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test and are among 16,000 students from across the United States recognized by the National Merit Scholarship Program. They are eligible to compete for almost 8,000 in scholarships valued at more than $35 million.

Ike Onwuzurike finished in the top one percent in scoring and is among 1,600 semifinalists of the more than 160,000 Black American high school seniors under consideration for a 2014 National Achievement Scholarship.

“We’re very proud of Sammy, Tomas and Ike and I’m very happy that they are getting the recognition they deserve.  They are all leaders and excel in and out of the classroom," Principal Michael Segvich said.

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Roughly 1.5 million high school juniors representing more than 22,000 schools across the country entered the 2013-14 National Merit Scholarship Program by taking the 2012 Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test last year. The nationwide list of semi-finalists, comprised of less than one percent of American high school seniors, includes the highest scorers in every state.

More than 30 students at theInternational Academy in Bloomfield Hills made the prestigious list recently released by the National Merit Scholarship Corporation.

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To become a finalist, the students must submit a detailed application that focuses on academics, participation in school and community activities, demonstrations of leadership, and other honors received, a news release stated. Finalists will be determined in February, and winners will be announced between April and July.

Four Brother Rice students received Commended status in the 2014 National Merit Scholarship Program. Although they will not continue in the 2014 competition, William Markley, Joseph McCusker, John Soltis, and Nicholas Tolksdorf placed among the top five percent of more than 1.5 million students in the competition. 


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