National Merit Scholarship semifinalists include 38 Clark County students

By Paul Takahashi

Thursday, Sept. 12, 2013 | 12:51 p.m.

Thirty-eight Clark County School District students are in the running for the National Merit Scholarship, a prestigious academic honor bestowed to only 8,000 high school seniors nationally each year.

The national scholarship recognizes students who scored among the top 1 percent of the 1.5 million students taking the Preliminary SAT exam, a run-up to the SAT college entrance exam. Nationally, there are 16,000 students named semifinalists.

The program is run by the National Merit Scholarship Corp., which, along with its partners and donors, has given more than $700 million in scholarships to high school seniors since its inception.

Superintendent Pat Skorkowsky today praised the semifinalists, their families and teachers for the students’ academic accomplishment.

“This year’s National Merit semifinalists represent some of our best and brightest in the Clark County School District,” Skorkowsky said in a statement. “I thank all of the parents, teachers and other staff members involved in their success.”

Ed W. Clark High School has 14 semifinalists, tied for the most scholars in the state. The semifinalists came from across the district, and included students from magnet and comprehensive high schools.

The Washoe County School District had 20 National Merit semifinalists. All of Nevada's semifinalists will compete for $35 million in scholarships to be awarded next spring.

Here are the names of the local National Merit semifinalists and their schools:

• Advanced Technologies Academy: Matthew G. Knoeppel, Mateusz Podzorski, Timothy Ponciano, Benjamin L. Tucker

• Centennial High School: Lindsey Madsen

• College of Southern Nevada High School, South: Allen J. Stubberud

• Coronado High School: Ashley A. Farre, Robert J. Fisch, Crawford S. Gates, Brandon M. Kawaguchi, Marylin Longley

• Ed W. Clark High School: Spencer A. Berger, Stephanie K. Chang, Craig A. Grant, Siyu Jiang, Theodore E. Kern, Geewoo Kim, Michael G. Kwok, Evan K. Merrill, Michael G. Mooney, Joshua S. Palagi, Zachary L. Shattler, Griffin F. Tabor, Frank C. Wan, Kevin K. Zhang

• Green Valley High School: Yasmeen Kaboud, Noah M. Yaffe

• Legacy High School: Tyler P. Steidl

• Liberty High School: Brayden A. Smith

• Palo Verde High School: Angele K. Bruce, Brenda J. Shen

• Rancho High School: Hava R. Schwartz

• Silverado High School: Mary K. Branigan

• Valley High School: Jack C. Heavey, Soraya Peron, Jonathan Ta

• West Career and Technical Academy: Dayne J. Fernandez, Alan W. Yang