2 in Houston semifinalists for national scholarships

Two Houston County High School seniors are national scholar semifinalists.

Mori Crocker is a National Achievement Scholar and Will Freeman is a National Merit Scholar. Crocker is competing for one of about 800 Achievement Scholarship awards worth more than $2.5 million that will be offered next spring. Freeman is one of about 16,000 National Merit semifinalists who continues in the competition.

Students are selected by 2011 preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test scores. Semifinalists are designated within geographic regions and are the highest-scoring program entrants in the states that make up each region.

To advance to the finalist level, the semifinalists and their high school must submit a detailed scholarship application in which they provide information about the student’s academic record, participation in school and community activities, demonstrated leadership abilities and educational goals.

They will be notified of the selections in January.

Houston County student to serve on advisory council

Houston County High School student Alexander Pegues was selected as one of 50 students to serve on the State Superintendent of Schools’ Student Advisory Council for 2012-13.

More than 750 students from 121 districts applied for the positions.

-- Staff reports