OCPS celebrates 28 National Merit Scholarship semifinalists

Students at three local public high schools were on the list.

By Amy Quesinberry
| 4:27 p.m. October 2, 2019

Southwest Orange
News

Twenty-eight Orange County Public Schools high school students, including 11 from local schools, have been chosen as semifinalists for the 2020 National Merit Scholarship Program. The students listed below were among more than 1.6 million juniors in an estimated 22,000 high schools who took the preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test last year and met program participation requirements.

DR. PHILLIPS – Jordan Kocarek and Griffin Martin

OLYMPIA – Kallen Cunningham, Neta Epstein, Elle Ferguson, Pavan Iyengar and Alesha Wallen

WINDERMERE – Guilherme Bejar, Aaryn Brown, Julia Kendall and Zachariah Wade.

These seniors now have an opportunity to continue in the competition for one of 7,600 National Merit Scholarships worth more than $31 million that will be offered in the spring.

author

Amy Quesinberry

Community Editor Amy Quesinberry was born at the old West Orange Memorial Hospital and raised in Winter Garden. Aside from earning her journalism degree from the University of Georgia, she hasn’t strayed too far from her hometown and her three-mile bubble. She grew up reading The Winter Garden Times and knew in the eighth grade she wanted to write for her community newspaper. She has been part of the writing and editing team since 1990.