The Upper St. Clair School Board Monday night recognized 14 National Merit Semifinalists and 15 National Merit Commended students.

Superintendent Patrick O'Toole said the number of Upper St. Clair High School students who earned the recognition was one of the highest in the region.

"I have hope (for the future) because you are here," said board member Angela Petersen. "Thank you for making Upper St. Clair look good!"

Every year the National Merit Scholarship Corporation announces the names of approximately 16,000 semifinalists from a nationwide pool of 1.5 million applicants for the National Merit Scholarship Program. Semifinalists have an opportunity to continue in the competition for some 8,300 National Merit Scholarships worth more than $32 million that will be offered next spring. About 34,000 Commended students are recognized throughout the nation for placing among the top five percent of the more than 1.5 million students.

Congratulations to the 2013 National Merit Semifinalists:

• Alexander Abraham
• Megan Adamo
• David Duan
• Sharon Gao
• Qinglan Huang
• Luke Kwiecinski
• Adam Lucas
• Owen Meiman
• John Rutkowski
• Shreeyash Tripathi
• Jillian Vlah
• Jonathan Wang
• Gaibo Yan
• Chenhao Yang

Congratulations to the 2013 National Merit Commended Students:

• Ayesha Amin
• Kelly Burdette
• Jon Cannon
• Madison Chafin
• Clark Chen
• Allison Cho
• Elizabeth Faeth
• Han Hueser
• Michael Lynch
• Akash Monpara
• Patrick Myron
• Trudel Pare
• Katherine Subosits
• Matthew Sweitzer
• Ryan Zalla

School District Receives Grants

O'Toole announced Monday night that the district received a $2,500 grant from Tobacco Free Allegheny to help prevent tobacco use among students.

He also said Eisenhower Elementary, Streams Elementary and Fort Couch Middle School were chosen to receive small grants from Center for Safe Schools to continue the Olweus bullying programs.

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