School District honors 32 National Merit semifinalists

By Paul Takahashi

Published Wednesday, Nov. 16, 2011 | 11:06 p.m.

Updated Thursday, Nov. 17, 2011 | 3:03 p.m.

The Clark County School District honored 32 National Merit Scholar semifinalists this year.

The annual National Merit Scholarship recognizes American students who scored among the top one-percent of the 1.5 million pupils taking the Preliminary SAT test, a run-up to the SAT college entrance exam. Of the 50,000 students qualifying for the scholarship, only a third become semifinalists. In February, about 15,000 students across the nation will be announced Merit Scholarship finalists.

About a dozen National Merit semifinalists attended a special presentation during a School Board meeting Wednesday. Students were introduced with a short summary of their accomplishments, and given certificates. Clark County School Superintendent Dwight Jones congratulated each student, and posed for photographs along with the student, his or her high school principal and representing School Board member.

The list of Clark County’s National Merit Scholarship semifinalists for this year is below:

• Cody Anderson, Advanced Technologies Academy

• James Gan, Advanced Technologies Academy

• Max Howard, Advanced Technologies Academy

• Natasha Sushenko, Advanced Technologies Academy

• Kelly Craig, Arbor View High School

• Hayley Rassuchine, Boulder City High School

• Joshua Curtis, Centennial High School

• Shanel Wu, Clark High School

• Melanie Chambers, Coronado High School

• Briana Chue, Coronado High School

• Lea Cohen, Coronado High School

• David Helmick, Coronado High School

• Nokhun Kim, Coronado High School

• Matthew Pohlmann, Coronado High School

• Lucas Sanford, Coronado High School

• Adam Sims, Del Sol High School

• Kevin Cong, Green Valley High School

• Forest Grayson, Green Valley High School

• Kristen Hsu, Green Valley High School

• Diana Ivey, Green Valley High School

• Jason Singh, Green Valley High School

• Matthew Solky, Green Valley High School

• Sandeep Srinivasan, Green Valley High School

• Genevieve Taylor, Green Valley High School

• John Rockenbach, Moapa Valley High School

• Kevin Chen, Northwest Career and Technical Academy

• Omar Sandoval, Northwest Career and Technical Academy

• James Dambro, Palo Verde High School

• Timothy Mallon, Palo Verde High School

• Ian Stewart, Rancho High School

• Jazlyn Patricio-Archer, Sierra Vista High School

• Durin Uddin, Sierra Vista High School

CORRECTION: The story has been updated to reflect the correct spelling of Advanced Technologies Academy and the correct spelling of Matthew Pohlmann. | (November 17, 2011)