Five Girls Preparatory School students are among 26 area seniors named Class of 2021 National Merit Scholarship program semifinalists.
Lily Duplooy, Hunter McVay, Maggie Parsley, Annie Thrash and Jennifer Wu were notified on Sept. 10 by school administrators of the news.
Interim Head of School Kirk Walker, through a news release, called the girls "outstanding representatives of our strong senior class."
The National Merit Scholarship Corp. was established in 1955 to identify and honor scholastically talented American youth and to encourage them to develop their abilities to the fullest.
In order to qualify, students as juniors have to take a preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test, which served as the initial screening of more than 1.5 million entrants.
The selection index scores of students were used to designate a pool of about 16,000 semifinalists nationwide. Semifinalists are the highest scorers in each of the 50 states and represent fewer than 1% of each state's high school seniors.
Those who moved on to the finalists level will be notified in February by mail to their home addresses. Principals in their respective schools will be notified as well.
On a rolling basis from March to mid-June, about 7,600 finalists will be selected to receive $2,500 Merit Scholarship awards. Special scholarships are awarded to outstanding students who are not finalists.
According to the program's website, the scholarships must be used "exclusively for undergraduate education at a college or university in the United States that holds accredited status with a regional accrediting commission on higher education."
Here are the area semifinalists:
TENNESSEE
*Chattanooga:
BAYLOR SCHOOL
Yiyang An
Creighton E. Arrington
Alyssa H. Kim
Sophia M. Peirano
Kunzhi Peng
Zinuo Wu
CHATTANOOGA CHRISTIAN SCHOOL
Amanda M. Bacon
Elise M. May
CHATTANOOGA SCHOOL FOR THE ARTS AND SCIENCES
Collin J. Matthews
COLLEGIATE HIGH
Braxton J. Mahr
McCALLIE SCHOOL
Giancarlo Raffiolo Dagostino
Jiayi Li
Caleb E. Olumofin
Gregorio Poggi
NOTRE DAME HIGH SCHOOL
Isabella E. Wade
STEM SCHOOL CHATTANOOGA
Lauren G. Bennett
Tucker D. Quering
*Harrison:
CENTRAL HIGH SCHOOL
Grayson Catlett
*Jasper:
MARION COUNTY HIGH SCHOOL
Savannah S. Cooksey
*Ooltewah:
HOMESCHOOL
Matthew T. Kimbley
Richard A. Ramont
*Signal Mountain:
SIGNAL MOUNTAIN HIGH SCHOOL
Matthew B. Ashline
Carson B. Bock
Chase W. Post
Seo Yoon Yang
ALABAMA
HOMESCHOOL
Abby E. Carroll
Contact Monique Brand at mbrand@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6592.