Of the select students who qualify for the National Merit Scholarship of 2012, four go to Los Alamitos High School - and one of them is senior Michelle Leon.

As a high school student, Leon is involved in many clubs, as she is vice-president in charge of drives for the California Scholarship Federation, governor-general of Model United Nations, and treasurer for Project Silence. With her supportive parents beside her, Leon has become more and more academically adept over the years, which has helped her to qualify for this year’s National Merit Scholarship.

The National Merit program has selected high-achieving students from each state since 1955. The pool of selected students gradually thins out as participants with the highest PSAT (Practice Scholastic Aptitude Test) scores are granted the semi-finalist title and move on to achieve other standards in order to be named finalists. Students from all over the country can enter the National Merit Scholarship program by taking the PSAT/NMSQT (National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test) as high school juniors or seniors and attaining a score that meets the program’s criteria.

Leon knew when she took the PSAT/NMSQT that the test would further her ability to perform well on the official SAT, but the congratulatory notification that she’d qualified for the National Merit program was a pleasant surprise. Before she knew it, she’d been moved to semi-finalist status.

A scholarship is a huge help to any aspiring college student, but a monetary award would be especially appreciated in Leon’s case: she plans to earn a dual major in neuroscience and philosophy, or to acquire a major in economics, depending on what university she attends. As a semi-finalist, she gets to choose any two universities in the United States, to whom the National Merit program will write letters of recommendation for Leon’s college applications. Along with the other three LAHS semi-finalists, Leon awaits April 18, to learn who has won corporate-sponsored scholarships, and May 2, to learn who has won the National Merit $2500 scholarships.

The Los Alamitos Unified School District serves nearly 10,000 students in Seal Beach, Rossmoor, and Los Alamitos. The district includes Los Alamitos High School, a full service high school, Laurel High School, a continuation high school, McAuliffe Middle School, Oak Middle School, and six elementary schools. Mrs. Meg Cutuli is the current President of the Board of Education. Dr. Sherry Kropp is the Superintendent of the Los Alamitos Unified School District.