Carroll has record 22 National Merit finalists

Southlake Carroll has a new record for National Merit Scholarship finalists at 22.

The district’s 22 semifinalist were all named finalists and are eligible for scholarships from various universities.

“Our students are hard workers,” said Becci Rollins, director of counseling. “Our district has been really diligent about making sure our curriculum and courses are preparing students for these types of tests.”

Each year about 1.5 million students from across the nation take the Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test. Only about 15,000 participants become finalist.

The list of students includes Jarod Chaney, Anthony Chen, Kelly Danner, Mallory Dyson, John Everett, Christina Gilchrest, Maher Gill, Elizabeth Hill, Azhar Hussain, Olivia Jolley, Lauren Jones, Soham Majmudar, Kylie McBridge, Kyle McCall, Hira Nazim, Matthew Prost, Ansel Richards, Elijah Snow, Zachary Susskind, Kelsey Taeckens, and Philip Venesky.

Rollins said the amount of semifinalist and finalist has grown the past three years.

“Our teachers work so hard and our students work so hard,” she said. “Our students are taking the strongest schedule of courses I’ve ever seen them take every year.”

This story was originally published March 3, 2015 at 6:00 AM with the headline "Carroll has record 22 National Merit finalists."