Making the grade

Ø 24 local students named National Merit semifinalists

By Tony Pennington

Transcript Staff Writer

The 2005 National Merit Scholarship semifinalists were announced September 15, 2004, and 24 area students made the cut.

The National Merit Scholarship Program, entering its 50^th year, named 16,000 high school seniors across the nation still in contention for 8,200 Merit Scholarship awards estimated to be worth $33.9 million. The semifinalists were selected from a pool of 1.3 million entrants.

Norman Public Schools posted 19 seniors on the semifinalist list. Superintendent Dr. Joseph Siano issued a press release acknowledging those students who made the list.

“We are very proud of all these students and their pursuit of scholastic excellence,” he said. “We congratulate these students, their parents and their teachers who have contributed to their success.”

Norman High School semifinalists are: Allyson Beasley, Shaneen Gilson, Celia Gunn, Laura Miller, Jacob Milstein, Andrew Mulkey, Matthew Rhodes, Andrea Striz, Sarah Torneten and David Weiss.

Semifinalists from Norman North High School are: Patrick Ahern, Saniya Ahmad, Michael Cantrell, John Givens, Keelan Jensen, Liqiao Ma, Jennifer Pyles, Sean Sanders and Ting Yu.

Home-schooled students Caleb Martin and Allison Thurmond made the list, as did Steven Hunter from Moore High School and Matthew Huffer and Andrew Smith from Westmoore High School.

Selected scholarship winners will be notified through four nationwide news releases in April 2005 and ending in July 2005.