Seniors Christine Schwarz, Doug Lauffenburger, and Jon Baldo have been chosen as National Merit Scholarship winners. Because of their high scores on the National Merit test, they will be attending college next fall with financial schoalrships worth $1,000.

"Being one of the finalists in this kind of a contest is quite an honor," declared Mr. Herman

Rider, principal of Maine, when asked about this year's scholarship winners.

Seven semi‑finalists were selected from Maine. Besides Chris, Doug, and Jon, Ken Kovar, Marci Sosdian, Christine Kron, and Katherine Owens were named.

Mr. Rider commented "Maine West is proud of all seven of these students. To make a score above the cutting point, which is very hard in order to be a finalist, is the greatest accomplishment."

Doug won the Nalco Foundation Merit Scholarship, which is a $1,000 renewable scholarship. Doug is planning to major in chemical engineering at the University of Illinois.

Chris won the Shell Oil Company Scholarship, and this too is a $1,000 renewable scholarship. Chris is planning to major in secondary education in order to be a teacher. Chris will also attend the University of Illinois.

Jon will continue his education at Michigan State University next year. He won the United Air Line Foundation Scholarship, which is a non‑renewable $1,000 scholarship.

Scholars were selected on the basis of grades, outside activities, school recommendations, and scores on two nationwide tests. The seven picked from Maine were among 15,000 finalists who were chosen from an original number of 710,000 people who took the nationwide test.

Being named as Merit Scholars places these three students in the top academic level of secondary school students throughout the country. The scholarships were valid for use in any college, of the winners' choice, in the United States.