November 2, 2006
Cleveland Heights High School seniors have been named semifinalists in the first round of the annual National Merit Scholarship Program and the National Achievement Scholarship Program. The National Merit semifinalists are Lia Bendix and Nathan Gibbon. The National Achievement semifinalist is Cory Farmer. Gabriela Salazar has been named a National Hispanic Scholar Finalist.

National Merit Commended students are Benjamin Bloom, Margaret Hodgkiss-Lilly, Ann Johnston, Matthew McPheeters, and Gabriela Salazar. Rhonda Register is a National Achievement Commended student.

More than 1.4 million juniors in nearly 21,000 high schools entered the 2007 National
Merit Program by taking the 2005 Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test, which served as an initial screen of program entrants. The semifinalists, which represent less than one percent of U.S. high school seniors, have earned the right to compete to become National Merit and National Achievement Finalists and scholarship winners. Merit Scholarship semifinalists have the opportunity to continue in the competition for some 8,200 awards worth $33 million.

More than 130,000 high school juniors from all parts of the U.S. requested consideration in the 2007 National Achievement Program when they took the 2005 Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test. 800 Achievement scholarship semifinalists will continue to compete for scholarship awards worth $2.5 million.

This year, the National Hispanic Recognition Program is honoring some 4,700 students selected from a pool of 175,000 qualifying students.

Although they will not continue in the 2007 competition for Merit Scholarship awards, commended students placed among the top 5 percent of more than 1.4 million students who entered the 2007 competition by taking the 2005 Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test. About 34,000 commended students throughout the nation are being recognized for their exceptional academic promise.