Silver Chips Online

The Maryland Higher Education Commission (MHEC) has selected 41 finalists, 24 semifinalists and 33 honorable mentions from Blair for the 2008-2009 Maryland Distinguished Scholars Award. There were two finalists and one semifinalist for the Talent in the Arts award category. The commission will provide all finalists with $3,000 in scholarship money for in-state higher education, which can be renewed annually for a maximum of $12,000.

MHEC named 373 finalists and 512 semifinalists statewide. Maryland juniors with a 3.7 cumulative GPA in their academic classes were eligible to apply for the award by March 1, according to resource counselor Marcia Johnson. MHEC ranked applicants based on their GPAs, and mailed them certificates by Aug. 27, she said. Finalists received invitations to attend a congratulatory reception held Saturday at the University of Maryland Baltimore Campus.

Juniors with a residency in Maryland can apply for the award each February in three categories: Academic Achievement, National Merit Scholarship and National Achievement Scholarship and Talent in the Arts. The latter category requires nomination by career counselor Lori Kearney and fine arts coordinator Sara Josey, and an audition for MHEC, Johnson said.

Achieving the title of Maryland Distinguished Scholar can be beneficial when applying to Maryland colleges and universities, according to Johnson. Several schools, such as Johns Hopkins University, will waive the application fee for finalists. Although schools outside of Maryland may not grant scholarships, Johnson said that the title is still a standard recognition of achievement. "It's an honor to be a Distinguished Scholar," she said. "[The admissions officers] may look at it and say, 'Well, this is a student who has achieved some recognition.'"

For more information or to view the Maryland Distinguished Scholar application, visit the MHEC web site.

The Maryland Distinguished Scholar Award Finalists for the Class of 2010 are:
Redab Alnifaidy
Alexander Bae
Siyuan Cao
Stephen Carlson
Deepa Chellappa
Lawrence Cho
Sophia Deng
Adam Detzner
Jeremy Fallick
Sarah Frank
Jacob Hurwitz
Lena Jia
Emily Jones
Pin-Joe Ko
Victoria Lai
Janice Lan
Timothy Lee
Yifan Li
Li Ma
Meredith Metcalf
Urja Mittal
Rebecca Novello
Anand Oza
Elizabeth Partan
Rohan Puttagunta
Peter Qiao
Alexander Sayegh
Michelle Shen
Anne Sholar
Xinyi Sui
David Tao
David Tolnay
Jennifer Wang
Hongyi Xia
Yi Xiao
Conway Xu
Scott Yu
Chenmuren Zhang
Devin Zhang

The Maryland Distinguished Scholar Award Finalists and Semifinalists for Talent in the Arts Category are:

Xinhong Qiu (Finalist)
Elissa Shiau (Semifinalist)
Peggy Houng (Finalist)

The Maryland Distinguished Scholar Award Semifinalists for the Class of 2010 are:
Jason Albanese
Nader Behdin
Elaine Brice
Wenjing Chen
Peter Gu
Peggy Houng
Diana Jeang
Alexander Joseph
Matthew Kannan
Seyoun Kim
Jeremy Lebow
Amy Liu
Vikas Mendhiratta
Rachel Mulbry
Joseph Owen
Caroline Pitt
Julia Radomski
Kristen Rosano
Benjamin Shaya
Laura Sirbu
Eric Van Albert
Julia Wynn
Rose Wynn
Jenny Zhang

The Maryland Distinguished Scholar Award Honorable Mentions for the Class of 2010 are:
Lily Alexander
Allison Arai
Adene Bekele
Sara Bekele
Tiffany Chang
Jeechee Chen
Kyujoo Choi
Alexander Egber
Maggie Fung
Rebecca Guterman
Tasnia Habib
Seth Halper-Stromberg
Julia Huynh
William Jones
Benjamin Kennet
Lauren Kestner
Lauren Krohmer
Laura Li
Elaine Lin
Haozhi Lin
Siqing Liu
Bethelhem Mengiste
Elliott Meyerson
Daniel Rabinovich
Sydney Smith
Danielle Sok
James Swartz
Richer Tan
Suejane Tan
Alexa Walczak
Eric Wan
Colin Ward
Chenyu Zhao