9 Parkview/Berkmar Seniors Are National Merit Semifinalists

(Editor's note: one name was removed from this article on the individual's request.)

One senior from Berkmar High School and eight from Parkview qualified as semifinalsists in the 2013 National Merit Scholarship Program, Gwinnett County Public Schools announced.

Adila Abdulwahid of Berkmar and Kelly P. Croteau, Larry He, Lisa Y. Liu, James M. May, Connor P. McDonald, (removed), Alizain Merchant, and Natalie R. Neuman of Parkview qualified.

The nine are among 52 from Gwinnett County that made the short list, out of about 1.5 million high school students who entered the competition last year as juniors taking thePreliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test.

Semifinalists "must have an outstanding academic record throuout high school, be endorsed and recommended by a high school official, write an essay, and earn SAT scores that confirm the student's earlier performance on the qualifying test," according the the GCPS press release.

The semifinalists -- about 16,000 from around the country -- will now compete for three types of National Merit Scholarships (8,300 in all, worth more than $32 million), which will be awarded in the spring of 2013.