September 16, 2009

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Redmond, Wash. – As announced by the National Merit Scholarship Corporation, 21 Lake Washington School District (LWSD) high school seniors qualified as semifinalists in the 55th annual National Merit Scholarship Program.

A total of 16,000 academically talented high school seniors nationwide have qualified. These students will have the opportunity to continue in the competition for some 8,200 National Merit Scholarships, worth more than $36 million, that will be offered next spring.

Students qualified for these awards by completing the 2008 Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test (PSAT/NMSQT), which served as an initial screen of program entrants. The nationwide pool of Semifinalists, which represents less than one percent of U.S. high school seniors, includes the highest scoring entrants in each state.

Redmond High School had the highest number of recipients in the district, with 13 students named as semifinalists.

Lake Washington School District National Merit Semifinalists:

Redmond High School: Rachel Ballantyne, Keiran Beaton, Briana Gahler, Kristina Hsu, Erika John, Sam Keller, Kristen Klimisch, Rebecca Li, Devin McMahon, Stefan Mellem, Thomas Moore, Kathryn Norton, and Kelly Ren

International Community School: Helena Scutt, Colin Tremblay, William Zorn

Lake Washington High School: John Hornick, Jeremy Housekeeper, Grant Jenkins

Eastlake High School: Thomas Cools

Juanita High School: Alice Tsai

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About Lake Washington: Lake Washington School District is a high-performing public school district serving Kirkland, Redmond and Sammamish, Washington. It is the sixth largest district in the state of Washington, with over 23,000 students in 50 schools.