Two East Granby Students Named National Merit Scholar Semifinalists

Two Westminster School seniors from East Granby have earned national academic recognition, according to a release Monday. 

Mae Mullen and Taite Puhala have been named Semifinalists in the 59th annual National Merit Scholarship Program. The students have an opportunity to continue in the competition for some 8,000 National Merit Scholarships worth about $35 million that will be offered next spring. Semifinalists must fulfill several requirements to advance to the Finalist level of the competition.

Mullen, a day student from East Granby, serves as co-editor-in-chief of The Westminster News; co-editor of The Martlet; co-president of the EcoTeam; a member of Chamber Choir, Choral, Dramat, Westminster Belles and First Girls’ Track; and co-captain of First Girls’ Cross Country. She has been recognized as an AP Scholar with Distinction.

Puhala, a day student also from East Granby, is the winner of this year’s Brian Ford Writing Prize and has been selected as a reader for Westminster’s Friday Nights in Gund Series. She is also president of The Movement writing club, a writer for The Westminster News, co-editor of the Martlet and plays basketball. She has won the Johns Hopkins Creative Minds Poetry Prize, the Smith College High School Poetry Prize and has been recognized as an AP Scholar with Distinction.

Two other seniors, Anish Chadalavada, a day student from Simsbury, and Rosalie Wetzel, a day student from North Granby, have been named Commended Students in the program. Commended Students are recognized for their exceptional academic promise demonstrated by their outstanding performance on the qualifying test used for program entry.

Approximately 1.5 million students took the 2012 Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test (PSAT/NMSQT) last October and entered the National Merit Program, a nationwide competition for recognition and awards conducted by the National Merit Scholarship Corporation. Approximately 16,000 of the high performers were named Semifinalists and the other 34,000 high performers were named Commended Students.