National Merit honors 30 CHS students

Photo Courtesy of SOMSD
Columbia High School celebrates 30 students who won National Merit awards.

MAPLEWOOD / SOUTH ORANGE, NJ — The National Merit Scholarship Program recently announced the names of 30 academically talented Columbia High School students who have been honored as part of the 64th annual Merit Scholarship competition.

CHS senior Sarah Braka was selected as a National Merit semifinalist. Semifinalists have an opportunity to continue in the competition for some 7,500 National Merit Scholarships worth more than $32 million that will be offered next spring.

The 25 CHS seniors who were awarded Letters of Commendation are Joshua Anthony, Julia Cataneo, Cameron Donald, Benjamin Doubek, Naomi Fisch, Sam Forman, Adam Friedman-Brown, Theodore Grayer, Joshua Haile, Eden Harel, Christopher Holowczak, Eleanor Jaworski, Jennifer Kret, Lauren Kret, Lucy Leonard, Luc Maynard-Parisi, Meredith Olin, Olivia Pryor, Nicholas Salvato, Sophia Salvato, Lauren Schwartzbard, Nicole Schwartzbard, Anna Torrey, Isabelle Wendt and Nathan Wong. These commended students placed among the top 20,000 scorers of more than 1.6 million students who entered the 2018 competition.

CHS seniors Joshua Abdill and Gabriel Levin received Special Corporate Sponsored Scholarships. The 2018 National Hispanic Recognition Program recognized CHS seniors Zoe Crutcher, Samuel Gonzalez-Freedson and Eleanor Jaworski.