The King’s Academy is proud to recognize 4 outstanding students who have been awarded either The National Merit Scholarship and/or The National Hispanic Recognition Program Scholarship. These academically talented high school seniors have been successfully named as Finalists and/or Scholars. Thomas Lamb, as a Finalist, was one of 8,200 National Merit® Scholarships, worth more than $35 million. Approximately 16,000 Semifinalists in the 54th annual National Merit Scholarship Program were named back in September 2009. Cameron Smith was named a Commended Scholar.
To be considered for a Merit Scholarship® award, Semifinalists fulfilled several requirements to advance to the Finalist level of the competition. About 90 percent of the Semifinalists were expected to attain Finalist standing, and approximately half of the Finalists win National Merit Scholarship, earning the Merit Scholar® title.
More than 1.5 million juniors in over 21,000 high schools entered the 2009 National Merit Program by taking the 2008 Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test (PSAT/NMSQT®), which served as an initial screen of program entrants. The nationwide pool of Semifinalists, which represents less than one percent of U.S. high school seniors, includes the highest scoring entrants in each state. The number of Semifinalists in a state is proportional to the state’s percentage of the national total of graduating seniors.
To become a Finalist, a Semifinalist must have an outstanding academic record throughout high school, be endorsed and recommended by the high school principal, and earn SAT scores that confirm the student’s earlier performance on the qualifying test. The Semifinalist and a high school official must submit a detailed scholarship application, which includes the student’s self-descriptive essay and information about the Semifinalist’s participation and leadership in school and in community activities.
Benjamin Bassett and Haley Heatley were named Scholars in The National Hispanic Recognition Program (NHRP), which identifies nearly 5,000 outstanding Hispanic/Latino students each year. This nationwide list includes students from the United States, Puerto Rico, U.S. Virgin Islands, Guam, Mariana Islands, and Marshall Islands, as well as U.S. citizens attending international and Army Post Office (APO) schools. It also includes approximately 150 of the top scoring PAA™ students from Puerto Rico.
The King’s Academy is a nationally recognized private Christian school serving approximately 1,200 students from preschool through twelfth grade and is accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools, the Association of Christian Schools International, and the Florida Association of Christian Colleges and Schools. The King’s Academy serves students and their families across Palm Beach and Hendry Counties at its main campus at Belvedere Road and Sansbury’s Way in West Palm Beach, Florida, its Clewiston, Florida campus on Caribbean Avenue, and its satellite preschool campuses in Greenacres, Palm Beach Gardens, and Royal Palm Beach, Florida. The King’s Academy also provides remote learning at TKAOnline.net. More information about The King’s Academy is available online at www.TKA.net and www.TKAClewiston.net.
