Drum roll please for National Merit Finalists

Sixteen students in Tampa Bay have been named National Merit Scholars, a honor widely recognized as the gold medal of high school awards. The students were selected on the merits of their academic records, personal essays and community work. They rose to the top of a semi-finalist pool culled from the top one percent of high school seniors, based on test scores on the PSAT exam taken in 2006.

Hillsborough's public schools counted five winners, compared to four in Pinellas and two in Pasco. The students all received $2,500 scholarships.

Hillsborough public schools:

• Andrew Betts, Plant High
• Sherry Chao, King High
• John Colby, Plant High
• Zongyu Li, King High
• Neil Manimala, King High

Pinellas public schools:

• Bridget Hendricks, Countryside High
• Karan Sagar, Palm Harbor University High IB
• Michelle Wang, St. Petersburg IB
• Sam Zakria, St. Petersburg IB

Pasco public schools:

• Ariel Choi, Land O'Lakes High
• Katie Lee Meusling, Land O'Lakes High

Private schools:

• Tara Braun, Berkeley Preparatory
• Alexander Edelman, Tampa Preparatory
• Aaron Koch, Tampa Preparatory
• Neal Miller, Berkeley Preparatory
• Samir Patel, Berkeley Preparatory
• Carter Schwartz, Shorecrest Preparatory School
• Liz Reischmann, Shorecrest Preparatory School
• Tiffany Cheezem, Shorecrest Preparatory School

Comments

[Diana Whittle]

I noticed that the names of the National Merit Finalists were printed yesterday (April 30) in your blog. Unfortunately, the three students from Shorecrest Preparatory School who were finalists were not included in this list. They are Carter Schwartz, Liz Reischmann, and Tiffany Cheezem. Could you please include them?
Thank you,
Diana Whittle
Director of Communications and Marketing
Shorecrest Preparatory School

[Bob]

I understand the 16 students mentioned in the Drum Roll entry were the National Merit $2500 scholarship winners from the Tampa Bay area.
Are those students from Shorecrest Preparatory also the $2500 winners? If yes, they should be included.

[Blaster]

Someone is wrong here:
It starts with "Sixteen students..." in the blog, then there are 19 names;

Or for Diana, are you sure the 3 students from Shorecrest are the National Merit Scholars, not simply the Finalist? Otherwise, there should be 7 students from St Pete High in this list.

Who is right?

[Natalie]

Maybe you should have titled this story "National Merit Scholars" since you did not include the names of all the National Merit Finalists in the article. There were 3 Finalists from Countryside High as well.

I apologize for the confusion. The April 30 posting named only the National Merit scholarship winners from the Tampa Bay region. It did not include the larger pool finalists.