By: Sharon Aron Baron

Out of the 53 Broward County Public School students that were named semifinalists in the prestigious 2018 National Merit Scholarship Program, 15 were from Coral Springs and Parkland high schools, one was home-schooled and all four public high schools in the city were represented.

These students join approximately 16,000 students nationwide as semifinalists and represent less than one percent of U.S. high school seniors with the highest scores on the Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test, which they took as juniors.

Coral Springs Mayor Skip Campbell said it was fantastic for the city and for the schools that all four public high schools in Coral Springs had National Merit Scholar Semi-Finalists this year.

“This shows that our youth are focused on learning,” he said. “It shows that the kids have some vision as to where they want to go with their lives.”

To be considered for a Merit Scholarship award, semifinalists must fulfill several requirements to advance to the finalist level of the competition. About 90 percent of the semifinalists are expected to obtain finalist standing, and about half of the finalists will win a National Merit Scholarship, earning the Merit Scholar title. These academically talented high school seniors have an opportunity to continue in the competition for 7,500 National Merit Scholarships worth more than $32 million offered next spring.

Local students named 2018 National Merit Scholarship Program semifinalists

Local National Merit Semifinalists Announced

Jake R. Shipe – Coral Springs High School

Vayun Alapat – MSD

Simon A. Hoo – MSD

Zachary Huang – MSD

Jonathan R. Hutton – MSD

Aeva C. Jazic – MSD

Nikhita Nookala – MSD

Carmen M. Schentrup – MSD

Brian P. Tobin – MSD

Celya O. Walker – MSD

Devon Wiesenfeld – MSD

Chelsey Gerena – Taravella

Destiny R. Rochester – Taravella

Margaret Anne Pierce – Home-schooled

Coral Glades High School
Yael Kamio – no photo at press time

All Broward County Public School students named 2018 National Merit Scholarship Program semifinalists are:

Atlantic Technical High School
Eric A. Engelhart

Cooper City High School
Hugh W. Dennin
Joie L. Meyer
Matthew N. Plonskier

Cypress Bay High School
William M. Braga
Andrew C. Braxton
Ryan F. Bush
Isabella Chiurillo
Sydnie S. Cohen
Hannah Kang
Andrew Kennedy
Lance E. Kotler
Tyler Kotler
Joseph Li
Richard T. Liu
Dylan S. Lyon
Christian A. Pichardo
Hannah Rothbard
Caleb Wong
Zachary J. Wurtenberger
Zonshen Yu

Everglades High School
Jaeson P. Alcoriza
Payton Restrepo
Rocky H. Shiu

Flanagan, Charles W. High School
Jeremy M. Gilick

Fort Lauderdale High School
Michael J. Fero
Jayanne Forrest

McFatter, William T. High School
Andre Gomez

Miramar High School
Brian A. Williams

Pompano Beach High School
Vikasni Mohan

South Plantation High School
Ashleigh D. Plasencia

West Broward High School
Alyssa F. Cavazos
Fabiana A. Corsi
Robert Cuba
Nina E. Fernandez
Tyler Metzger
Joshua R. Vogel

Western High School
Sydney H. Leiter
Agustina Vincent de Urquiza

For more information about the National Merit Scholarship Program, visit nationalmerit.org.

Author Profile

Sharon Aron Baron

Editor of Talk Media and writer for Coral Springs Talk. CST was created in 2012 to provide News, Views, and Entertainment for the residents of Coral Springs and the rest of South Florida.