Thirteen high school seniors from Issaquah and Sammamish, and one from Liberty High School in Renton, have distinguished themselves as being among the premier students in the country, this month named as finalists in the National Merit Scholarship Program.

Six students from Issaquah High School are now just one step away from the prestigious honor of one of 8,200 scholarships worth $2,500 each.

Those Issaquah High students are Gretchen Allen, Spencer Hildie, Ariel Jacoby, Kevin Lee, Tiffany Lim, and Helen Liu.

From Skyline High School, Emily Baer, John Gerlach, Ariel Goh, Derrik Petrin, and Evan Shieh were also named to the list of 15,000 finalists nationwide.

Liberty High School’s Hayley Grandine, Eastlake High School’s Thomas Cools, and Eastside Catholic High School’s Christopher Jung were also named merit scholar finalists.

These qualifiers come from the over 1.5 million students who in 2008 took a Prelminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test (PSAT/NMSQT). The total pool of finalists represents less than one percent of high school seniors.

All winners of Merit Scholarship awards are chosen from the finalist group, based on their abilities, skills, and accomplishments. Each finalist is evaluated on their academic record, information about the school’s curricula and grading system, two sets of test scores, the school official’s written recommendation, information about the student’s activities and leadership, and the finalist’s own essay.

Scholarships will be awarded between March and June 2010.

The Reporter congratulates these dedicated and hardworking students, and wishes them all the best in the merit scholarship competition and their college careers.