39 Shaker Students Honored by National Merit, National Achievement & National Hispanic Programs

October 10, 2005 – Thirty-nine members of the Shaker Heights High School Class of 2006 have been named Semifinalists or Commended Students in the National Merit, National Achievement and National Hispanic Scholarship Programs. These scholastically talented seniors are considered top candidates for admission to America’s most selective colleges. They also have the opportunity to continue in the competition for some Merit Scholarship awards that will be offered next spring, and will be candidates for other scholarships as well.

This year's National Merit Semifinalists from Shaker are Ian Bardenstein, William Feldman, Morgan Grossman-McKee, Matthew Herzfeld, Braeden Kepner-Kraus, Lavinia Pavlish, Hazel Rigby, Ben Schnur, Allison Vitkus, Diana Wang, and Lauren Weiss. National Achievement Semifinalists are Nicole Feeling, Brittany Mosely, Corbin Sykes, and Malik Wiggins.

National Merit Commended Students are Anderson Albano, Avi Bakshani, Halle Bauer, Nicolas Bethoux, Stephen Cabrera, Max Gardner, Joseph Gibbons, Rebecca Glazer, Emily Grannis, Brandon Hemmelgarn, Betsy Hogg, Alexander Hoover, Jason Immerman, Celia Kaplan, David Kohn, Sarah Ledford, Dinah Lewis, Brittany Mosely, Amanda Murphy, Julia Shatten, Katherine Sommers, Shan Tie, and Brian Weber. National Achievement Commended Students are Kelly Jackson and Christopher Whatley.

In addition, Ian Bardenstein and Stephen Cabrera were named National Hispanic Scholars.

Nationwide, 16,000 National Merit Semifinalists have been designated from approximately 1.3 million program entrants in more than 21,000 high schools nationwide. Representing less than 1 percent of each state's high school seniors, Semifinalists are the state's highest-scoring students on the 2004 Preliminary Scholastic Assessment Test (PSAT).

The National Achievement program was established in 1964 to recognize the nation’s top-scoring African-American students. Approximately 1,600 Semifinalists have been named nationwide.

The National Merit Scholarship Corporation (NMSC) is a not-for-profit organization established in 1955. The Semifinalists named in each year's Merit Scholarship competition show exceptional academic ability and potential for success in rigorous college studies. Those who meet requirements to advance to the Finalist level, then compete for scholarships supported by independent sponsor organizations, by NMSC, or by their colleges.

Since the inception of the program, Shaker has consistently been among the top schools in Ohio in producing National Merit and National Achievement scholars.

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