Eight Northwest Georgia high school students are among the 16,000 students nationwide to be named semifinalists in the 2010 National Merit Scholarship Program. These students have the opportunity to continue in the competition for some 8,200 scholarship awards, worth more than $36 million, that will be offered this spring.

The semi-finalists are: Luke Weeks of Coosa High School; Madeline G. Briggs and A.J. White, both of Darlington Upper School; John H. Ahn, Katherine E. Cheek and Joshua M. McKinney of Georgia–Cumberland Academy in Calhoun; Lucas P. Wachsmuth of Cartersville High School; and Jeremiah H. Stevens of Northwest Whitfield County High School in Tunnel Hill.

Weeks has been on the Coosa Academic Decathlon team all four years and has won the overall award in the academic competition for the past two years. He has also won medals at the state level. He qualified for the 2009 AP Scholars with Distinction Award by earning an average grade of at least 3.5 on all AP Exams taken, and grades of 3 or higher on five or more of these exams.

White has taken 10 honors and nine AP courses. He is a member of the National Honor Society, Cum Laude Society, Spanish National Honor Society, Mu Alpha Theta, the varsity football and track teams, and has received the Georgia Certificate of Merit, the Sewanee Club Award, the Yale Book Award, and the Phi Beta Kappa Book Award.

Briggs has taken five honors and seven AP courses in her four years at Darlington. She is the religious life liaison in Cooper House and a member of the Spanish Honor Society, the Environmental Awareness Club, the swim and rowing teams. In addition, she serves on the Summer Reading Committee and is involved in Darlington’s peer mentoring/tutoring program at the Lower School.

About 90 percent of the semifinalists are expected to attain finalist standing, and approximately half of the finalists will win a National Merit Scholarship, earning the Merit Scholar title.

To become a finalist, a semifinalist must have an outstanding academic record throughout the high school years, be endorsed and recommended by the school principal, and earn SAT scores that confirm the student’s earlier qualifying test performance. The student must also submit a self-descriptive essay and information about participation and leadership in school and community activities.