Philbrook is Merit Scholar Semifinalist

WAITSBURG - "WHAT??? I'm a what now?" responded The Times' own Emma Philbrook in response to fellow reporter Dena Wood's request for a quote regarding how it felt to be a National Merit Scholarship semif inalist. Philbrook, a WHS senior, did not receive the National Merit Scholarship Corp. semifinalist notification that was supposed to have been mailed the first part of September and assumed she hadn't qualified. She was greatly relieved, and more than a little excited to learn, through a Google alert linking to a Union Bulletin article, that was not the case.

"I'd always thought that the National Merit Scholarship was out of my reach, that it was something for kids who had been going to SAT prep courses since elementary school," said Philbrook. I took a PSAT practice test my junior year and scored six points below Washingtonrsaquo;s National Merit cutoff for that year. At that point, it was like 'Hey, self, if you boost your score a bit you could be one of the first in your school to win this thing.' So I studied like a maniac. And it worked!"

As a junior, Philbrook took the PSAT/MNSQT Test, competing against 1.4 million high school juniors across the nation, all trying to win a spot as one of the 16,000 seniors chosen as semifinalists. Less than one percent of all high school students make the cut as semifinalist. Students will find out in February if they qualify as finalists to compete for some 7,600 National Merit Scholarships worth about $33 million that will be offered next spring.

Philbrook credited her academic advisor, Roseann Groom for helping her through the process. "Emma is a unique student who sees challenges as opportunities rather than obstacles. The effort she invested into her PSAT prep last fall has been rewarded with a tremendous honor. We are all thrilled for Emma," said Groom.