AREA STUDENTS AMONG MERIT SEMIFINALISTS

Area students are among some 15,000 high school seniors who are semifinalists in the 41st annual National Merit Scholarship Program.

These students have a chance to continue in the competition for about 6,900 Merit Scholarship awards, worth about $26 million, to be offered next spring.

Area National Merit semifinalists:

Cape Girardeau Central High School: Adam B. Bryant, Gabriel M. Hart and Emily A. Trueblood.

Notre Dame High School: Jeremy S. Bratton, Jennifer A. Layton and Bryan W. Schaefer.

Jackson High School: Chris J. Dittmer and Kevin B. Goodier.

Thomas Kelly High School: Derek R. Graham.

Meadow Heights High School: Michael W. Matthews.

Anna-Jonesboro Community High School: David B. Miller.

Juniors in some 19,000 U.S. high schools entered the 1996 Merit Program by taking the Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test, which served as an initial screen of more than a million entrants. The highest scorers in each state were designated semifinalists and represent 0.05 percent of the state's high school graduating class.

Before being considered for Merit Scholarship awards, semifinalists must advance to the finalist level by maintaining an outstanding academic record, being endorsed by the high school principal and submitting SAT I scores that confirm the student's earlier test performance.

About 90 percent of semifinalists are expected to become finalists, and all Merit Scholarship winners will be chosen from the finalists.

Every student is considered for 2,000 National Merit $2,000 scholarships. In addition some 400 corporations or business organizations will offer about 1,100 scholarships and about 200 colleges and universities will offer more than 3,800 scholarships.

Merit Scholarship recipients will be announced beginning in April.