Eight Kamiak seniors on national merit scholar semifinalist list

MUKILTEO — Mai Dang wondered what was up when she got called into the principal’s office at Kamiak High School last week.

When she arrived and looked around, she figured she needn’t worry.

Some of the school’s best and brightest seniors were there, too.

“They had good reputations so I knew I wasn’t in trouble,” she said.

Far from it.

Dang and seven other Kamiak seniors learned that they have been named semifinalists in a prestigious nationwide scholarship competition based on a strong performance on a national exam they took last year.

The others are Kevin Song, Kurt Doten, Joseph Bae, Annissa Alusi, Jenny Xia, Stephanie Kinner and Zeke Barger.

They are among 16,000 semifinalists nationwide in the 53rd annual National Merit Scholarship program. The distinction allows them to continue to compete for 8,200 National Merit scholarships worth $34 million that will be announced next spring.

More than 1.4 million juniors from 21,000 high schools across the country entered the competition by taking the 2006 Preliminary SAT-National Merit Scholarship Test, which served as an initial screen of program entrants. The national pool of semifinalists, which represents less than 1 percent of U.S. high school seniors, includes the highest-scoring entrants from each state.

Previous National Merit Scholarship winners from Snohomish County say the recognition can lead to a flood of university recruitment letters and some tempting scholarship packages.

The eight seniors from Kamiak represent more than half the semifinalists from Snohomish County. There were 14 seniors countywide to make the list, including public, private school and home-school students.

“That’s by far and away the largest number we have had at Kamiak,” Principal Keith Rittel said.

Part of the wider success might be the sheer volume of Kamiak students taking the exam. School staff urged more students to try and about 360 students gave it a shot, roughly 100 more than the previous year.

“I was excited,” Rittel said. Historically, Kamiak gets one or two students recognized annually.

Six of the students have been in classes together since the middle of elementary school as part of the Mukilteo School District’s Summit program for academically gifted students.

Their closeness and camaraderie probably helped along the way, several of the students said.

“I have known some of these people for more than eight years,” said Doten, who at 16 is the youngest of the eight. “There were all these people I have had to compete with and I’m not even in the top of the class.”

It’s a great distinction to share, Alusi said.

“A lot of them are my really close friends” she said.

Barger, who plans to study neuroscience in college, just likes the fact that childhood friends were successful.

“They are all pretty cool,” he said. “It’s nice to have so many people who as people don’t change do so well.”

All of the students have pushed themselves with rigorous schedules.

Bae, who has played violin for 12 years, has been enrolled in the Running Start program at Edmonds Community College the past two years.

The other seven have enrolled in some of the hardest classes their school offers.

Among them, they have taken 70 college-level Advanced Placement courses while finding their niche in campus life.

For instance, Alusi is assistant drum majorette for the school’s show band. Doten is a pitcher for the baseball team. Xia sings for the choir and Song has stayed busy with student government.

Nationally, about 90 percent of semifinalists will become finalists and about half of those finalists will be named National Merit scholars.

The Kamiak kids can expect one more thing — a smile from their principal.

“We’re real proud of them,” Rittel said.

Reporter Eric Stevick: 425-339-3446 or stevick@heraldnet.com.

@2. Breakout Header:Student scholars

Here are the Snohomish County students who are semifinalists nationwide in the 53rd annual National Merit Scholarship program:

ARCHBISHOP THOMAS J. MURPHY HIGH SCHOOL

Emma Nelson

EDMONDS-WOODWAY HIGH SCHOOL

Eleanor Garrard Alicia Hendrix

KAMIAK HIGH SCHOOL

Annissa Alusi Joseph Bae Zeke Barger Mai Dang Kurt Doten Stephanie Kinner Kevin Song Jenny Xia