Four students from Western Albemarle High School have been selected as semifinalists in the 55th annual National Merit Scholarship Program and will continue in the competition for National Merit Scholarships, worth more than $36 million, which will be announced next spring.

Western’s finalists are Davis Blalock, Christopher McConnell, Linge Sun and Hannah White.

More than 1.5 million high school juniors entered the National Merit Scholarship Program by taking the Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test in October 2008. The nationwide pool of semifinalists represents less than one percent of U.S. high school seniors.

Western’s commended students, recognized for scoring above average on the exam but no longer in consideration for the scholarship, are Patrick Crider, Jeffrey Diamond, Brandon Donahoo, Arliss Gearhart, Margaret Given, Jordan Haws, Julia Loman, Reid Meador, Alex Mosolgo-Clark, Aaron Myers, Andrew Nafizger, Van Nguyen, Ciara Pratt, Hannah Schiller, Margaret Schwenzfeier, James Taylor and Elias Vidal.