West Orange Students Honored as National Merit Scholars

The following information is from the West Orange School District.

Five West Orange High School students have been recognized in the 2013 National Merit Scholarship Program; and three in the National Achievement Scholarship Program.

The highest honor goes to Sai Mandalapu who was named a National Merit Semifinalist. Less than one percent or about 16,000 students nationally, who took the 2011 Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test, were named a Semifinalist. About 1.5 million juniors in more than 22,000 high schools entered the 2013 NMSP. Sai will now advance to the Finalist round, where he will be eligible to compete for one of 2,500 National Merit $2,500 Scholarships.

Four students were named National Merit Commended Students. They are Rachel Cooper, Raashmi Patalapati, Anjali Sivendra, and Ethan Blake. These students are recognized for their exceptional academic promise demonstrated by their outstanding performance on the 2011 Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test.  They are among a group of 34,000 students nationally being given this honor. Commended students placed among the top five percent of more than 1.5 million students who entered the 2013 competition.

The National Achievement Scholarship Program announced that Melanie Babi, Yanique Bell, and Tiffany Smith from WOHS were named Outstanding Participants in the NASP. These students scored in the top three percent of more than 160,000 Black Americans who requested consideration in the 2013 National Achievement program when they took the 2011 Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test. The National Achievement Scholarship Program was initiated in 1964 specifically to honor academically promising Black American high school students.