Mount Si honors Merit Scholars

Published 12:58 pm Thursday, January 22, 2015

Seven Mount Si High School seniors from the class of 2015 have been named National Merit Scholars. They earned this distinction by earning top scores in the preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test, which students across the nation take the fall of their junior year.

Two of the seven, Jessica Brady and Ryan Hartman, are National Merit Semifinalists, ranking amount the highest scoring students in each state. Of the 1.5 million high school students nation-wide who took the exam last fall, about 16,000 received semifinalist titles. Brady and Hartman can continue in the competition to become National Merit Finalists and scholarship winners.

Seniors Angus Brookes, Callahan Gillard, Benjamin Gutenberg, Wilhelmina McMichael and Mackenzie Popp were named National Merit Commended Students, an honor presented to approximately 34,000 of the top 50,000 highest-scoring students.

Future plans for the students include:

Brady is interested in studying sociology or psychology in college;

Brookes is looking at colleges with strong language and music programs.;

Gillard hopes to continue his studies in the Korean language and business at the University of Washington;

Gutenberg intends to earn degrees in mathematics, and education, and then to become a high school teacher;

Hartman is considering several colleges in California;

McMichael will study accounting at the University of Washington; and

Popp is considering studies in kinesiology, anatomy and exercise sciences, and hopes to play college-level soccer;

The National Merit Scholars’ portraits will be added to the “Wall of Fame” in Mount Si’s main hallway.

For more information regarding the College Board/PSAT & National Merit scholarships and recognition, visit: www.collegeboard.com.