Mehlville Senior High School senior Hannah Williams has been named a National Merit Scholarship semifinalist.

She is one of roughly 16,000 high school seniors who will have an opportunity to continue in the National Merit Scholarship competition for some 8,200 scholarships worth more than $35 million. To be considered for a National Merit Scholarship award, semifinalists must fulfill several requirements to advance to the finalist level.

“I have some great teachers at Mehlville who have helped motivate me to succeed,” stated Williams, who currently is working on applying to colleges.

She also is an active member of the Color Guard, History Club and Band.

More than 1.5 million juniors entered the 2009 National Merit Program by taking the 2007 Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test, which served as an initial screen of program entrants. The nationwide pool of semifinalists, which represents less than 1 percent of high school seniors, includes the highest scoring entrants in each state.

To become a finalist, a semifinalist must have an outstanding academic record, be endorsed and recommended by the high school principal, complete a detailed scholarship application and earn SAT scores that confirm the student’s earlier performance on the qualifying test.