2 local students named national merit semifinalists

The National Merit Scholarship Corporation, based in Evanston, Ill., announced today that the list of 16,000 semifinalists across the country include to students from The Donoho School. They're Morgan S. Aveni and Edward Chen.

Vestavia Hills High School had the most semifinalists in the state with 20. The number of semifinalists in each state is proportional to the state's percentage of all graduating seniors nationwide.

About 90 percent of the semifinalists will be named as finalists, but only half the semifinalists will be compete for a share of $34 million in scholarships. The process begins when about 1.4 million high school students take the P-SAT qualifying test. Merit scholar are designated based on academic skills, a student essay and participation and leadership in community and school activities. Scholarship winners will be announced in April and July.