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National Merit Scholars named

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Thirteen local high school students were named 2015 National Merit Scholars, officials announced Wednesday.

The students are among 2,500 awarded Merit Scholars from across the United States who will receive $2,500 from the National Merit Scholarship Corporation’s program.

More than 1.4 million juniors went through the program’s initial screening in October 2013 by taking the Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test. The highest-scoring students were chosen to be the 16,000 semifinalists.

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The 15,000 students who met the program’s requirements for the finalist level then advanced and a committee of college admissions officers and high school counselors chose the 2,500 scholars from among this pool.

Students were selected based on a combination of their accomplishments and their potential for success in collegiate studies.

The committee also appraised numerous materials that finalists had submitted for review. This included information such as academic records, scores from two standardized tests, participation and leadership in school and community activities, a recommendation letter written from a high school official and an essay written by the finalist.

The 13 local National Merit $2,500 Scholarship winners are:

Jeffrey J. Chen from Arnold O. Beckman High School, Irvine;

Katrina M. Duong from Arnold O. Beckman High School, Irvine;

Tianrui Guo from Northwood High School, Irvine;

Ryan J. Lim from Northwood High School, Irvine;

Teresa Anh N. Tran from Northwood High School, Irvine;

Kevin A. Hsieh from Woodbridge High School, Irvine;

Kevin J. Li from Woodbridge High School, Irvine;

Katherine J. Park from Woodbridge High School, Irvine;

Alex Chang from University High School, Irvine;

Sparsh Sah from University High School, Irvine;

Kristina L. Shia from University High School, Irvine;

Patrick W. Halle from Newport Harbor High School, Newport Beach;

Edward M. Goul from Sage Hill High School, Newport Coast.

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