Fifteen Washtenaw County high school students were named candidates for the U.S. Presidential Scholars Program.
This program recognizes some of the most exceptional graduating high school seniors in the nation. Up to 141 students eventually are named U.S. Presidential Scholars each year, and they are selected from approximately 3,000 initial candidates, according to the program’s website.
Ann Arbor’s Huron High School had three students selected as candidates for 2013 and Pioneer High School had six.
Huron’s candidates are Eilam Morag, Cyrus Nikolaidis and Valerie Peng. The candidates from Pioneer are Elizabeth Hines, Siyan Li, Danny Luan, Jenny Nathans, Daniel Rothchild and Siddhartha Sarkar.
Emma Borjiginwang and Jack Hu are candidates from Skyline High School. Community and Father Gabriel Richard high schools in Ann Arbor also were represented by Acer Xu and Joseph Sorenson, respectively.
Garrett Schliebe from Dexter High School and James Corcoran from Saline High School also are candidates.
Students who have been selected as candidates have until Feb. 28 to apply for the prestigious honor.
Approximately 20 male and 20 female seniors from each state are chosen as candidates based on their ACT and SAT test scores or through demonstrated talent in the visual, creative and performing arts, the website says.
The initial pool of candidates is narrowed down from 3,000 to about 560 semifinalists. The U.S. Presidential Scholars are announced in April.
Danielle Arndt covers K-12 education for AnnArbor.com. Follow her on Twitter @DanielleArndt or email her at daniellearndt@annarbor.com.