Merit Scholarship Finalists

By Susan Coney

 On February 10, Superintendent of Schools Evan Pitkoff, Principal Arlene Gottesman, and Director of Guidance Neil Culhane congratulated three high school seniors who have been named finalists in the 2006 competition for Merit Scholarship Awards.

Megan Rawson, Celia Song and Claire Zukowski each shook hands and received a framed award from Dr Pitkoff for having attained such a high honor. The students received the honor based on their PSAT scores, grade point average, community service, and other high school activities.

This year 1.5 million students nationwide took the PSAT test and from that large number Megan, Celia and Claire made it into the pool of 1,500 finalists. In March, National Merit Scholarship Corporation will begin mailing scholarship offers to winners.

“To have three kids [who] did very, very good just tells the strength of the system that we have,” said Mr Culhane. “While this is a high school award, it does reflect the entire Newtown system.

“These students had teachers at a younger age who got them excited and provided them with enrichment opportunities.”