Lawrence high schools announce National Merit Scholarship semifinalists

Fourteen seniors in Lawrence high schools are semifinalists in the National Merit Scholarship Program.

Free State High School National Merit semifinalists are clockwise from front, Liza Farr, Victoria Gilman, Amy Stahl, Alex Kong, Keil Eggers, Eric Palmquist and Alex Becker.

Lawrence High School National Merit semifinalists are clockwise from front, Jenny Xu, Jason Chang, Orion Dollar, Joseph Matthews and Daniel Knight.

The students — two at Bishop Seabury Academy, seven at Free State High School, five at Lawrence High School — are among 159 students in Kansas and about 16,000 nationwide to advance in the competition for 8,400 National Merit scholarships, which together will be worth more than $36 million.

Semifinalists from Bishop Seabury:

  • Reed Grabill, son of Megan and Eric Edwards and Bob and Jennifer Grabill.
  • David Lawrence, son of Larry Lawrence and Erica Landsberg.

Semifinalists from Free State:

  • Alex Becker, son of Neal Becker and Ann Cudd.
  • Keil Eggers, son of Bruce Eggers and Jackie Counts.
  • Liza Farr, daughter of Randy Farr and Gwendolyn Macpherson.
  • Victoria Gilman, daughter of Joe and Judy Gilman.
  • Alex Kong, son of Man and Sue Kong.
  • Eric Palmquist, son of Larry Palmquist and Yilan Zhao.
  • Amy Stahl, daughter of Saul and Denise Stahl and Susan Stahl.

Semifinalists from Lawrence High:

  • Jason Chang, son of Andi Chang and Yi-Hsien Hu.
  • Orion Dollar, son of Matthew and Gretchen Dollar.
  • Daniel Knight, son of Terence Knight and Nanette Brandt.
  • Joseph Matthews, son of Rob and Mary Matthews.
  • Jenny Xu, daughter of Hongguo Xu and Xiofeng Zhang-Xu.

Semifinalists emerged from a field of about 1.5 million students nationwide who took the PSAT as juniors in 2009.

Finalists — about 15,000 — will be chosen based on academic records, administrator recommendations, SAT scores that confirm earlier performance on the PSAT, and application materials. Scholarhip winners will be chosen from among finalists, to be announced beginning in April.

About 200 colleges and universities reward finalists with financial assistance. National Merit Scholars who attend Kansas University, for example, receive renewable scholarships of $10,000 a year.