6 area students in seminfinals for Merit scholarships

SPRINGFIELD — Six local high school seniors are semifinalists in the National Merit Scholarship competition, according to a press release from the National Merit Scholarship Corp.

Approximately 16,000 high school students qualified as semifinalists for the program that awards 8,400 scholarships worth more than $36 million.

Semifinalists are selected based on performance on the Preliminary SAT, taken their junior year of high school.

Area students who are semifinalists are:

• Abigail Miller, home school, of South Charleston

• Alexander Chase of Catholic Central High School

• Robert Elder of Northeastern High School

• Seth Dixon of Shawnee High School

• Audrey Chitkara of Springfield High School

• Aileen Oldstone-Moore of Springfield High School

About 90 percent of semifinalists will become finalists in the competition by demonstrating outstanding academic achievement and performing well on the SAT.

They also must fill out an application with the support of a school official.

Merit scholars are selected from the finalists pool based on skills, accomplishments and potential for success in college.

Three types of National Merit scholarships are available.

There are 2,500 National Merit $2,500 scholarships, 1,000 corporate-sponsored Merit Scholarship awards and 4,900 college-sponsored Merit Scholarship awards.

Contact this reporter at (937) 328-0373 or mgildow@coxohio.com.

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