FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE N.R. #39, 9/28/99
Date: September 28, 1999
Contact: Irene Cromer
(703)791-8720
STUDENTS NAMED SEMIFINALISTS
A student attending Potomac High School, one who attends Gar-Field High School, and two Woodbridge High School students have qualified as semifinalists in the 2000 National Achievement Scholarship Program. The Achievement Program is a privately financed competition for black Americans that is conducted by the National Merit Scholarship Corporation. The academically able semifinalists have an opportunity to continue in the competition for more than 700 Achievement Scholarships, worth about $2.5 million, to be awarded next spring. The Prince William County School Board will honor the students at a reception on November 3, 1999.
The qualifying students are Erica A. Lewis, Potomac High School; Erik S. Ogilvie, Gar-Field High School, and Odise E. Adams and Patricia L. Bing-Grant, Woodbridge High School.
Approximately 1,500 students were selected from the nearly 100,000 black students who requested consideration when they took the 1998 Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test (PSAT/NMSQT). Semifinalists must now advance to the finalist level of competition in order to be considered for Achievement Scholarships. To qualify as a finalist, a semifinalist must have a record of high academic performance throughout secondary school, be endorsed and recommended by the school principal, and submit SAT scores that confirm the earlier PSAT/NMSQT performance. About 1,200 semifinalists are expected to become finalists. For more information, contact Elaine S. Detweiler, public information director, National Merit Scholarship Corporation, 1560 Sherman Avenue, Suite, 200, Evanston, IL 60201-4897.
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