Three Sonoma County high school students have been named National Merit Scholarship winners, according to the Illinois-based not-for-profit organization.
Jordan Lawder French, a senior at Petaluma High School;
Andrew Yu, a senior at Cardinal Newman High School, and Nicolle Bertozzi, a senior at Santa Rosa High School, were named National Merit Scholars. French and Yu won $2,500 scholarships. Bertozzi's award, sponsored by the University of Chicago, will provide between $500 and $2,000 annually for up to four years of study.
The winners were judged to have the strongest combination of accomplishments, skills and potential for success in rigorous college studies, according to the organization.
Winners are culled from more than 15,000 finalists who were selected from the approximately 1.5 million juniors who took the preliminary SAT qualifying test in 2011.
About 90 percent of the 16,000 semifinalists nationwide typically advance to become finalists and more than half of those receive $2,500 scholarships and other financial awards, according to the organization.
An additional group of scholars is expected to be announced in July.
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