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| Zoë Onion, semi-finalist in National Merit Scholarship Program (courtesy photo) |
WELLS –
Wells High School senior Zoë Onion has learned that she is a
semifinalist in the 58th annual National Merit Scholarship Program. She achieved semifinalist status by
scoring highly on the 2011 Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship
Qualifying Test or PSAT/NMSQT.
Annually, 1.5 million high school juniors and seniors
throughout the United States take this standardized test. Based upon test results, 16,000 are
selected to become Semifinalists.
Semifinalists have the opportunity to compete over the
coming months to be among the 15,000 finalists selected in the spring to
qualify for over 8,300 National Merit Scholarships, worth more than $34
million.
“About 90 percent of the semifinalists are expected to
attain finalist standing, and more than half of the Finalists will win a
National Merit Scholarship, earning the Merit Scholar title,” according to the
National Merit Scholarship Corporation.
“First, it’s great to have this opportunity available for
students and second it is great to be recognized for all the work I have put in
through the years,” said Onion about becoming a semifinalist.
At Wells High School, Onion is on the Math Team, school
newspaper, and Student Council. In
addition, she participates in the jazz, marching (this year she is a drum
major) and concert bands and plays piano for the school chorus. She also plays
on the softball team at school in the spring. Currently, she is in the cast
rehearsing for the upcoming fall play at WHS, “And Then There Were None.”
Onion says that she has not decided on a college to attend
after high school but says that she would like to study molecular biology and
do research. In the summer of
2012, Onion inspected incoming boats in Mount Vernon for invasive species such
as milfoil and hydra.
“We’ve been very lucky to have several students qualify each
year in the National Merit Scholarship Program,” said WHS secretary Lil
Lagasse.
The National Merit Scholarship Program is administered by
the National Merit Scholarship Corporation of Evanston, Illinois. It is a
non-profit corporation established in 1955. Scholarship money awarded by the NMSC comes largely from
corporate and college sponsorship.
Story and photo by Reg Bennett
