11 Seniors Honored by National Merit Scholarship Corp.

Geneva High School can boast more National Merit Scholar honorees this year than ever before, principal Tom Rogers announced Monday. Eleven students received the district’s Tradition of Excellence Award for earning national recognition in the program, which they earned by extraordinary scores on the Preliminary SAT  (PSAT) exam they took last year.

“I am absolutely thrilled with this Class of 2011,” exclaimed Board of Education President Mary Stith.

Four seniors were named National Merit Scholarship Commended Students for placing in the top 5 percent of the estimated 1 million students who took the PSAT in the fall of 2009. About 34,000 students earned “Commended” status, Rogers said. Geneva High School’s Commended Students are Blair Dunbar, Dominic Gelfuso, Jordan Otto and Riley Sullivan.

One student, Melissa Nelson, was named a National Merit Scholarship semi-finalist. She scored in the top half of the top 1 percent across the country in the PSAT.

An unprecedented six seniors have been named National Merit Scholarship finalists: Bradley Bernhard, Grant Fairchild, Molly Griffin, Alexander Ostgaard, John Schrilla and Collin Waldoch. They scored in the top half of the top 1 percent of students who took the PSAT, then were chosen as finalists based on a separate application process limited to semi-finalists. Only 8,200 students nationwide were named finalists, said Rogers.

The six finalists will learn this spring if they will receive National Merit scholarships, which can range from $2,500 to full tuition for four years. More than half of all finalists nationwide receive either a National Merit Corporation scholarship, a corporate-sponsored scholarship or a college-sponsored scholarship.

 Dunbar, Sullivan, Nelson and Waldoch did not attend Monday's ceremony.