Five Richard Montgomery Students Are Semifinalists for National Scholarship

Twenty-two Montgomery County high school students—including five at Richard Montgomery High School in Rockville—are semifinalists in the 2013 National Achievement Scholarship competition, Montgomery County Public Schools announced in a news release.

"The scholarship program, administered by the National Merit Scholarship Corporation, recognizes academically promising [African-American] students across the nation and awards college scholarships to hundreds of these students each year," the release said.

Richard Montgomery's semifinalists are:

• Andie S. Berry
• Brittany L. Dickerson
• Kiera F. Givens
• Channing N. Kimble-Brown
• Caroline M. Tyson

Henok Addis, a Rockville resident who attends the magnet program at Montgomery Blair High School, is also a semifinalist, the Blair High School Magnet Foundation announced.

Nine public high schools in Montgomery County are represented by this year's semifinalists.

"Last year, 28 MCPS students from seven schools were named as semifinalists and 13 received scholarships," the release said.

More than 160,000 students nationally requested consideration for the National Achievement Scholarship Program and 1,600 were named as semifinalists, according to a release by the National Merit Scholarship Corporation.

Semifinalists are chosen based on their performance on the Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test (PSAT/NMSQT) during their junior year.

"About 80 percent of the semifinalists are expected to advance to the finalist level and more than half of the finalists will be awarded with scholarships next spring," the school system news release said.

The National Merit Scholarship Corporation also administers the National Merit Scholarship Program.

Forty students from Rockville-area high schools were named semifinalists in that competition earlier this month.

This article was updated at 1:15 p.m. on Oct. 3.