Nearly 70 Hawai'i high school seniors have been named semifinalists in the 2008 National Merit Scholarship Program. They are in the running for some 8,200 Merit Scholarship awards, worth $34 million.

O'ahu semifinalists include: Academy of the Pacific — Sky L. Achitoff; Damien Memorial High School — Christopher A. Ballesteros; Hanalani High School — Royce G. Tabora; 'Iolani School — Lyndsey M. Arakawa, Christian B. Brady, Signe H. Chambers, Alanna Y. Cooney, Maegan L. Doi, Derek R. Fainberg, Aaron Y. Fong, Jonathan C. Fung, Ryan C. Gomoto, Allison M. Hasegawa, Kimberlee A. Hashiba, Mari R. Heslinga, Pamela H. Ho, Kate M. Ikehara, David P. Jaress, John Jin, Scott K. Kaneshiro, Reid Y. Kawamoto, Leslie N. Kim, Aleksi W. Lee, Colleen Y. Lundy, Alissa A. Masutani, Joshua L. Michaels, Elizabeth M. Murphy, Julia A. Nishioka, Clay K. Ozaki-Train, Braxton Sato, Robert H. Shimizu, Christina A. Tamaru, Annalyse M. Tamashiro, Yutaro Tsukikawa, Marisa Wang; Kaiser High School — Alexandra M. Boland, Dylan L. Howard, John J. Pyun; Kamehameha Schools — David Choy, Nathan J. Nakatsuka, Elisa K. Tsukayama; Mid Pacific Institute —Eliot St. John; Miliani High School — Philip Mocz; Punahou School — Dustin S. Bingham, David M. Clifton, Kelsey A. Conklin, Chiara Essig, Richard Galluzzi, Hayden Hashimoto, Travis R. Ing, Stephen L. Kwong, Christopher K. Lau, Mari A. Miyoshi, Allyson L. Mizumoto-Gitter, Ananya Ray, Samuel A. Roeca, Nikolai C. Stieglitz, Shane R. Wo, Thomas Z. Young, Lili Zhao; St. Louis School — Kevin J. Donahue; home-schooled students — Kenji O. Fukunaga and Emily K. Metcalf.

Neighbor Island semifinalists: St. Joesph's High School (Big Island) — Hannah J. Katibah; Wai-akea High School (Big Island): Stacey K. Torigoe; Kaua'i High School — Nicole A. Gaetjens; Seabury Hall (Maui) — Lydia E. Lund and Peter D. Meyer.

The National Merit Scholarship Corporation, a nonprofit organization that operates without government assistance, was established in 1955 to conduct the annual National Merit Program. Scholarships awarded through the program are underwritten by the corporation's own funds and by approximately 500 business organizations and higher education institutions that share.

More than 1.4 million high school juniors in nearly 21,000 high schools entered the 2008 National Merit Program by taking the 2006 Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test, which served as an initial screen of program entrants.

The nationwide pool of semifinalists, which represents less than 1 percent of U.S. high school seniors, includes the highest-scoring entrants in each state. The number of semifinalists in a state is proportional to the state's percentage of the national total of graduating seniors.

To become a finalist, a semifinalist must have an outstanding academic record throughout high school, be endorsed and recommended by the school principal and earn SAT scores that confirm the student's earlier qualifying test performance. The semifinalist and a school official must submit a detailed scholarship application, which includes the student's self-descriptive essay and information about the semifinalist's participation and leadership in school and community activities.