Students Recognized for Their Brains

The congratulated a group of students Tuesday who had special achievements in The National Merit Scholarship Program.

High school students enter the National Merit Program by taking the preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test (PSAT/NMSQT).

Parkland High School Principal Howard Lessel introduced the students, who were congratulated by school board President Jayne Bartlett during a board meeting held in the Community Services Center at Lehigh Carbon Community College.

Eight semifinalists were congratulated: Jack Huang, Camille Johnson, Reno Kriz, Zhiheng Qin, Benjamin Spikol, Matthew Stein, Lincoln Walton and Tristan Winick. Lessel said finalists in the program will be announced later this year.

The board also congratulated seven who are “commended students” in the program because of their performance: Scott Berman, Sachin Gandhi, Andrew Kim, Andrew McKeon, Paul Peng, Carly Trachtman and Brooke Troutman.

The National Merit Scholarship Program is an academic competition for recognition and scholarships that began in 1955.

In addition, the Parkland School Board congratulated Joshua Tempro, a semifinalist in the 2012 National Achievement Scholarship Competition. The program honors scholastically promising black American high school students and increases their educational opportunities.