Eight East Baton Rouge Parish School System high school seniors, the most of any area school districts, have been named Semifinalists for the 2012 National Achievement Scholarship Program.  They were part of a pool of 1,600 African-American high school seniors nationally designated Semifinalists in the 48th annual program, according to the National Merit Scholarship Corporation.

These scholastically talented young men and women now have an opportunity to continue in the competition for about 800 Achievement Scholarship awards worth more than $2.4 million to be offered next spring. To be considered for a National Achievement Scholarship, Semifinalists must fulfill several requirements to advance to the Finalist level of the competition. About 80 percent of Semifinalists are expected to attain Finalist standing, and more than half of the Finalists will win an Achievement Scholarship award.

In this district, Baton Rouge Magnet High School had the most Semifinalists with seven contenders:  Brea Butler, Candice Johnson, Anteneh Lisan, Alyssa Moore, Malik Potier, Christopher Rogers and Jana Webb.  McKinley High School’s Semifinalist is Garrick Mayweather.

The National Achievement Scholarship Program is a privately financed academic competition that operates without government assistance. It was initiated in 1964 to recognize academically promising African-American students throughout the nation and to provide scholarships to a substantial number of the most outstanding program participants. To date, more than 31,100 young men and women have received Achievement Scholarship awards worth more than $98 million.

More than 160,000 high school juniors from all parts of the United States requested consideration in the 2012 National Achievement Scholarship Program when they took the 2010 Preliminary sat/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test.  From the approximately 1,600 Semifinalists, about 1,300 are expected to advance to the Finalist level in January 2012.