Clark County’s National Merit semifinalists named

The last year of high school for Clark County's class of 2013 hit a high note Wednesday.

Fifty-eight local seniors have reached the semifinals in the National Merit Scholarship Program competition, which annually identifies the smartest 1 percent of America's high school students based on their PSAT scores.

That is a quarter more than the 46 semifinalists Clark County had last school year, according to Wednesday's announcement.

So, which school is to thank for the improvement?

The privately operated Meadows School, where annual tuition is $22,750, produced 14 semifinalists this year, the most of any Nevada school and four more than last year.

But the biggest gain was seen at the Clark County School District's Clark High School, which had 10 semifinalists, the second-highest number of any school in Nevada. Last year, Clark had one semifinalist.

Clark has a reputation for academics and in the past has earned a spot on Newsweek magazine's annual list of the nation's top-performing high schools. It's home to several special programs, including the Academy of Math, Science and Applied Technology and the Academy of Finance.

The number of Clark semifinalists was a surprise but not a shock to Principal Jill Pendleton, who told students Wednesday during the morning announcement that they all should aspire to the recognition, regardless of background. About 55 percent of the school's students live in poverty.

Sharon Fang, 17, remembers listening to a similar message three years ago.

Fang, now a senior, studied for the PSAT all summer after her sophomore year, realizing that scholarships are available to National Merit scholars.

About 90 percent of all semifinalists will advance to the finals based on PSAT scores, high school grades and community involvement. They then will have a chance at $32 million in scholarships offered by a national nonprofit organizing the competition.

The PSAT, co-sponsored by the College Board and National Merit Scholarship Corporation, is a standardized exam that measures critical reading skills, math problem-solving skills and writing skills.

Fang's parents saved for college, but New York's Columbia University - her "dream school" - isn't cheap at $62,000 for tuition and fees, including books and student housing.

Students can't just cram to score 2250 out of a perfect score of 2400 on the PSAT, as Fang did. It was a year-round effort for the tennis captain, president of the National Honor Society and daughter of Chinese immigrants.

Fang usually gets home from after-school tennis practice at 7 p.m., eats dinner and practices piano until 9 p.m. She plays in the school orchestra. She then studies until midnight, catching up on sleep on weekends.

Billy Wang's schedule is similar.

"On a good day, I go to bed at midnight," said the 16-year-old Clark senior, swimmer and semifinalist, whose parents also are Chinese immigrants.

Semifinalists aren't rare prodigies but students who do the work, Pendleton noted.

"A friend's dad used to say, 'The more you do, the more you can do,' " Pendleton remembers from her childhood.

Wang absorbed similar lessons from his parents.

"If you have goals, you have to be educated to achieve those goals," Wang said he was told by his parents. "Academics are the means to an end."

These high-sighted students are a step closer to that end, whether it's neuroscience for Wang or a science field for Fang. Being a semifinalist sticks out to colleges, Fang noted.

"And you get your picture on Clark's wall," she said.

Contact reporter Trevon Milliard at tmilliard@
reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0279.