Ten UCS seniors place among top one percent of U.S. students

Ten Utica Community School seniors have been named semi-finalists in the
National Merit Scholarship program.

The UCS students scored among the top 16,000 students – or less than one
percent – nationally in the 2011 Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship
Qualifying Test. Approximately 1.5 million U.S. high school students enter the
National Merit Scholarship program during their junior year.

The UCS Students are Georgia Hurchalla, of Henry Ford II High School; Michael
Anderson and Neesirg Patel, of Stevenson High School; Jessica Gaines, Lucas
Weingartz, and Troy Zuccaro, of the Utica Academy for International Studies;
Mark Cunningham, of Utica High School, and Benjamin Austin, Samantha Kulhanek, and Sanjana Murali of Eisenhower High School.

The semi-finalist status means the UCS students will have the opportunity to
continue in the competition for more than 8,300 National Merit scholarships
worth $34 million. Merit students compete for scholarships sponsored by
corporations, colleges and universities.