Three VHS Seniors Announced as National Merit Scholarship Semifinalists.

Today officials of the National Merit Scholarship Corporation (NMSC) announced the names of approximately 16,000 Semifinalists in the 60th annual National Merit Scholarship Program.  These academically talented high school seniors have an opportunity to continue in the competition for some 7,600 National Merit Scholarships worth about $33 million that will be offered next spring. 

To be considered for a 
Merit Scholarship award, Semifinalists must fulfill several requirements to advance to the Finalist level of the competition  About 90 percent of the Semifinalists are expected to attain Finalist standing, and more than half of the Finalists will win a National Merit Scholarship, earning the Merit Scholar title.

About 1.4 million juniors in more than 22,000 high schools entered the 2015 
National Merit Scholarship Program by taking the 2013 Preliminary SAT / National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test, which served as an initial screen of program entrants.  The nationwide pool of Semifinalists,  representing less than one percent of the U.S. high school seniors, includes the highest-scoring entrants in each state.  The number of Semifinalists in a state is proportional to the state's percentage of the national total of graduating seniors.

As principal of Valencia High School, I am proud to announce our three seniors, Benjamin Liu, Jennifer Pi, and Kenneth Tsai who have qualified as Semifinalists in the 2015 National Merit Scholarship Competition.  Please congratulate them on this notable achievement when you see them.  
Sincerely,
Rick Lopez

The people in the pictures are as follows:
Large group

Back row left to right: Dr. Watkins, Mr. Stanley Austin Lee, Mitchell Pham, Julia Han, Egbert Lin, Joseph Yen, Alex Vajiac, Minkyu Sohm, Jack D’Aquila, Yuri Ho, Alan Mangosong, Zach May, Dakota Bishop, Taylor Youngquist, Madelyn Rychlik, Lucy Womack, Apurva Mody, Mr. Lopez, Ms. Yaung.
Front row left to right: Emily Lee, Noelle Schorn, Jeremy Powell, Kenneth Tsai, Benjamin Liu, Jennifer Pi, Kara Turner, Jinnie Rhee, Terry Yau, Samantha Siu, Katie McFarland, Annie Truong.
Missing: Andy An, Urmi Bhaumik, Aaron Kang, Jason Kim

Small group – left to right
Noelle Schorn: National Hispanic Recognition Program and National Merit Commended Scholar.
Jeremy Powell: National Hispanic Recognition Program
Kenneth Tsai: National Merit Scholar.
Jennifer Pi: National Merit Scholar
Benjamin Liu: National Merit Scholar
Kara Turner: National Achievement Program Scholar and National Merit Commended Scholar.