Creekview RB Named Nat'l Achievement Semifinalists

Keith Woods, a captain on the  varsity football team, was named a 2012 National Achievement semifinalist today.

Nationwide, only 1,600 African American high school seniors received that designation, which is based on performance on the 2010 Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test.

As semifinalists, Woods,  , and 's Ryan A. Croom and Madison E. Gilbert are eligible to compete for one of 800 scholarships that will be awarded in the spring.

The scholarships have a total value of more than $2.4 million.

The other Sequoyah seniors, Stephanie Brown, Thomas Brown and Katie Pelzek, were named commended students.

About 1.5 million juniors in 22,000 high schools took the 2010 PSAT. More than 160,000 requested consideration for the 2012 National Achievement Scholarship Program, which "was initiated in 1964 to recognize academically promising black students throughout the nation and to provide scholarships to a substantial number of the most outstanding program participants," National Merit Scholarship Corporationspokeswoman Eileen Artemakis said in a news release.

To earn finalist status, students must have a superior academic record, a recommendation from their principal and an SAT score that's equivalent to or higher than their PSAT score. They must also submit an application along with an essay.

About 1,300 semifinalists will become finalists in January. Of that number, more than half will receive scholarships.

Since 1964, the program has doled out more than $98 million in scholarships to 31,000 students.

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For more information on the National Achievement Scholarship Program, open the PDF on this page.