It’s an annual summer upper, a positive breath of fresh air. The yearly roster of San Mateo County recipients of National Merit Scholarships is a strong indicator that academic excellence remains a hallmark of our secondary schools, both public and private.
The Merit awards continue to be a strong argument to continue the use of standardized testing as a reliable tool to help gauge a student’s academic abilities.
High school juniors take the Preliminary Scholastic Aptitude Test to determine whether they can proceed into the full competition for Merit scholarships.
The test is just one indicator of a youngster’s overall qualifications for a monetary award. Other criteria are used as well: grades/strength of courses taken, extra-curricular activities, leadership capabilities, community service and performance on another standardized test, either the Scholastic Aptitude Test or American College Testing.
The relevance of standardized testing in this process validates a trend that has begun at a number of elite American colleges and universities which are reinstituting the use of this mechanism after years of eschewing it for a variety of reasons.
National Merit Scholarships — funded by U.S. corporations, colleges and universities and the scholarship program itself — are among the most highly valued in the land. They have grown to be a fixture since their inception in the mid-1950s.
In 2024, the National Merit Scholarship Corporation, based in Illinois, will award nearly 7,000 scholarships with a total value of about $26 million.
San Mateo County has 31 resident seniors who have won one of the prestigious awards this year. Here is the current list for the county’s Class of 2024:
Aragon: Carole Darve, Alexandra Ding, Chin-Yi Kong, Rachel Ma, Zachary Schanker, Quincy Teng; Burlingame: Angelyn Liu, Elise Spenner; Carlmont: Davinder Josephson, Xavier Lem, Jin Trieu Dinh Nguyan, Amelie Zhou; Crystal Springs Uplands: Kent Li, Shikha Kini; Lick-Wilmerding (SF): Mason Salma; Menlo-Atherton: Ajax Fu, Hanna Hedley, Sina Kassayan, Ashlyn Roeder; Menlo School: Jackson Deutch, Eric Li-Len Feng, Samuel Warman.
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Mills: Ronit Barman; Nueva: Michael Sarboraria; Sacred Heart Prep: Carl Crum, Noelle Mendoza; San Mateo: Zaee Shah; Sequoia: Collin Liou, Allison Wang; and Woodside: Spencer Bergland, Patrick Van Hoven.
A final announcement of supplementary Merit honorees will be made later this summer. If any county teens are among those winners, their names will be noted in this space.
AHOY, ALL ABOARD GOP ARMADA: San Mateo County Republicans, though relatively few in number and lacking much influence in the grand political scheme of things in these ultra-liberal parts, will gather for a rally/celebration Aug. 22 in small boats bobbing in the shallow waters of the Foster City Lagoon. You might speculate that the theme of this gala aquatic event, just a couple of months prior to the November presidential election, could well be “Make Foster City Great Again.” Ahoy, there, matey, red, white and blue captain’s hats for everyone! You can call the local GOP HQ at (650) 931-4596 for reservations and more information.
PENINSULA HACKERS, REJOICE: A long-awaited golf driving range is nearing completion on the Burlingame Bayfront. The Topgolf facility, a huge, three-floor enterprise with more than 100 individual practice bays, could make its much-anticipated debut late this year if work remains on schedule. Protective netting is being installed on two dozen support towers. The new sports option, which will replace a failed and more modest driving range, is located atop a former city dumpsite and shares the acreage with a soccer field and other amenities.
REEFER MADNESS IN A CAN: Looking for a quasi-booze buzz without the traditional hangover? The Willows Market in Menlo Park is touting its array of cannabis-infused beverages that allegedly provide much the same sort of punch as a martini. It was bound to happen. Weed, for good or ill, is omnipresent now. A happy hemp high, after all, is legal in the great state of Euphoria, er, California.
MRS. BUBBLES REJOINS MATE: Nice to see Mrs. Bubbles, a Burlingame laundromat, back in operation at its decades-old location on California Drive. It had been out of commission due to a fire. It has rejoined its cleansing mate, “Mr. Bubbles,” a similar outfit on North B Street in downtown San Mateo. Mr. and Mrs. Bubbles are united once more. Happy rinsing.
TWO CLASSICS IN ONE YEAR: At a time of swirling national angst, we can look back 50 years to another tough year, 1974. It was no picnic back then as well. Fortunately, we had two of Mel Brooks’ finest comedy efforts to provide some relief: “Blazing Saddles” and “Young Frankenstein.” Think about that. Two Brooks classics in a single year.
Email: johnhorganmedia@gmail.com.
(2) comments
Mr. Horgan, thanks for another eclectic column and especially for providing a list of merit award winners. Congratulations to all of the National Merit Scholarship winners for the Class of 2024.
Young Frankenstein was the first movie I saw in a theater, and will always have a place in my heart that demands periodic rewatches. The beauty of a Mel Brooks film is that it's hilarious at the start, then gets funnier over time as you age into understanding more jokes.
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