Congratulations to Anna M. Braam and Travis J. Duncil, seniors at Fairfield High School, who were named National Merit Semifinalists. They are among the approximately 16,000 students recognized nationally.

These academically talented students will continue in the competition for one of 8,300 National Merit Scholarships worth more than $34 million. The scholarships will be awarded in the spring.

About 1.5 million juniors in 22,000 high schools entered the 2012 National Merit Scholarship Program by taking the 2010 Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test (PSAT/NMSQT), which served as an inititial screen of program entrants. The nationwide pool of semifinalists includes the highest-scoring entrants in each state. To become a finalist, as semifinalist must have an outstanding academic record throughout high school, be endorsed and recommended by a high school principal, and earn SAT scores that confirm the student’s earlier performance on the qualifying test.

We wish Anna and Travis luck in this process.