Souderton Area High School is proud to announce the following National Merit Scholarship Program honored students:

• Leah Harrell has been named as a Semifinalist in the 54th Annual National Merit Scholarship Program. Leah is one of approximately 16,000 academically talented high school senior Semifinalists from the across the nation who can go on to compete for nearly 8,200 National Merit Scholarships, worth more than $35 million, that will be offered next spring. The nationwide pool of Semifinalist applicants, which represents less than one percent of US high school seniors who entered the 2009 competition by taking the 2007 PSAT/NMSQT test, includes the highest scoring entrants in each state. 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 excepted to attain Finalist standing, and approximately half of the Finalist will win a National Merit Scholarship.

• Katie E. Johnson, Victor Mann, Monica Schmidt, and William Siegfried have been named Commended students in the 2009 National Merit Scholarship Program. About 34,000 Commended student throughout the nation are being recognized for their exceptional academic promise. Although they will not continue in the 2009 competition for National Merit Scholarships, Commended students placed among the top five percent of more than 1.5 million students who entered the 2009 competition by taking the 2007 PSAT/NMSQT test.