The following area students were named semifinalists in the National Merit Scholarship program.
(File photo) Nicholas Carolan and Alexander Friel, of Allentown Central Catholic High School; Kristen Hickey, Channing Hou, Marali Kaira, Nicholas Kshatri, Marion Lowe, Kristina Shum, Claire Tang and Benjamin Trinkle, of Parkland High School; Abigail Burnett and Ross Sonnenblick, of Freedom High School; Clarissa Grundstein, Milind Jagota, Benjamin Kussmaul and May Wai, of Liberty High School; Julia Costacurta, Erin Donaher, Rachel Fromer, John Grencer, Joren Husic, Kylee Jacoby, Samuel Li, Olivia Morton, John Painter and Kathryn Persin, of Moravian Academy; Naomi Li, of Southern Lehigh High School; Kathleen Capella, of Notre Dame High School; Katherine Bacher, Zhouhong He, Xiang Lou, Darsh Patel, Katie Xue and Ying Zheng, of Emmaus High School; Jacob Holland and Annika Sundlof, of Saucon Valley High School; Madeline Myers, of Nazareth High School; Emily K. Emick and Rohit Gangupantulu, of Whitehall High School; Jessica Lu, of Blair Academy; John E. Daudelin, of Hackettstown (homeschool).
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Bethlehem Catholic High School will recognize the academic accomplishments of the top students in grades 10, 11 and 12 during the Top Scholars Dinner to be held Sunday at the high school. The following students will be recognized:
From the Class of 2018: Julia Ardolino, Antonio Diaz, Molly Ehrig, Vivi Hoang, Sean Huff, Jisun Lee, Kayla McMenimen, Natasha Miner, , Alexa Panuccio, Michelle Ruhl , Michael Spirk, Andrew Thomas, Richard Turnbach, and Nicholas Zambo.
Class of 2017: Florencia Dayan, Paige Faasuramalie, Megan Friend, Hesshanth Jeyaranghan, Maria Macaluso, Blake McGill, Elizabeth Nemec, Lauren Schuster, Jill Spirk, Donovan Stuard, Rachel Tanczos and Christopher Walakovits.
Class of 2016: Laine Angstadt, Kelly Blewitt, Bailee Deshier, Maria Foreman, Sae Hoon Kim, Matthew Leddy, Bryce Orloski, Sabrina Sarli, Kristen Spence and Rachel Wills.
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Ashley Eden, of Upper Macungie Township, who is attending Wilkes University, was a recipient of a Fulton Financial Corp. Scholarship Award. Ashley is a daughter of Bruce Eden, who works in Fulton Financial Advisors' Investments
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Kelsey Payung, of Hellertown. Brianna Cosgrove, of Easton and Katie Frace, of Nazareth are participating in the peer mentor program at Lebanon Valley College.
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Ashley Lorah, of Allentown, and other students in the Ashland University Honors Program were able to experience Italy this summer as part of the Honors Italy: Grand Tour study abroad trip. Lorah is a daughter of Scott and Beth Lorah and a 2011 graduate of Parkland High School.
Miami University student Christopher Taylor spent the summer 2015 semester in China as part of a study abroad group. Taylor, from Emmaus is a Senior majoring in Finance.