Seven Washington Township High School Seniors
Among National Merit Scholarship Commended Students

WASHINGTON TOWNSHIP –  Seven members of the Washington Township High School Class of 2009 have been named as Commended Students in the 2009 National Merit Scholarship Program.  WTHS seniors Phillip Bagienski, Jeffrey Lamb, Kirsten Larsen, Caitlin Markey, Michael Palena, Prachi Parihar and Kathleen Taylor were recognized for the exceptional academic promise demonstrated by their outstanding performance on the qualifying test used for program entry.  They were among 34,000 high performers recognized as Commended Students.

Although they will not continue in the 2009 competition for National Merit Scholarship awards, these Commended Students placed among the top five percent of more than one million students nationwide who entered the 2008 competition.

The National Merit Scholarship Program is an academic competition for recognition and scholarships that began in 1955.  High school students enter the National Merit Program by taking the Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test (PSAT/NMSQT), a test which serves as an initial screening of approximately 1.5 million entrants each year, and by meeting published entry/participation requirements. The semifinalists represent approximately one-third of the 50,000 high scorers of the PSAT/NMSQT and are designated on a state representational basis as among the highest scoring entrants in their state. 

Beginning in March 2009, the National Merit Scholarship Competition will notify 8,200 winners of the three types of Merit Scholarship Awards: National Merit $2500 Scholarships, Corporate-sponsored scholarships and college-sponsored scholarships. 

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