At ‘Iolani 32 members of the Class of ’08 qualified as National Merit Scholarship semi-finalists for 2008.

These academically talented high school seniors have an opportunity to continue in the competition for some 8,200 Merit Scholarship awards, worth $34 million, that will be offered next spring. 

 To be considered for a Merit Scholarship award, semi-finalists must advance to the finalist level of the competition by fulfilling several requirements. About 90 percent of the semi-finalists are expected to attain finalist standing, and approximately half of the finalists will be selected as Merit Scholarship winners.

 More than 1.4 million juniors in nearly 21,000 high schools entered the 2008 National Merit Program by taking the 2006 Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test (PSAT/NMSQT), which served as an initial screen of program entrants. The nationwide pool of semi-finalists, which represents less than one percent of U.S. high school seniors, includes the highest scoring entrants in each state. The number of semi-finalists in a state is proportional to the state’s percentage of the national total of graduating seniors.

 ‘Iolani’s 32 semi-finalists represent 47 percent of Hawaii's total of 68 semi-finalists for 2008. Congratulations to the following:

Lyndsey M. Arakawa

Christian B. Brady

Signe H. Chambers

Alanna Y. Cooney

Maegan L. Doi

Derek R. Fainberg

Aaron Y. Fong

Jonathan C. Fung

Ryan C. Gomoto

Allison M. Hasegawa

Kimberlee A. Hashiba

Mari R. Heslinga

Pamela H. Ho

Kate M. Ikehara

David P. Jaress

John Jin

Scott K. Kaneshiro

Reid Y. Kawamoto

Leslie N. Kim

Aleksi W. Lee

Colleen Y. Lundy

Alissa A. Masutani

Joshua L. Michaels

Elizabeth M. Murphy

Julia A. Nishioka

Clay K. Ozaki-Train

Braxton Sato

Robert H. Shimizu

Christina A. Tamaru

Annalyse M. Tamashiro

Yutaro Tsukikawa

Marisa Wang