Published: October 17, 2009 04:12 am      

EDUCATION: Wilson students earn National Merit honors

WILSON — Seniors R.J. Seager and Amber Lehman are very busy people.

To start, Seager is a semifinalist in the National Merit Scholarship competition, while Lehman has been named a commended student. The National Merit Scholarship is an academic competition based on a student’s score on the Preliminary Scholastic Aptitude Test, which doubles as the National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test. In New York state, students must score at least a 218 to be a semifinalist and at least a 201 to be a commended student. The test consists of three portions: critical reading, mathematics and writing skills. Each is scored on a scale from 20 to 80 points for a total of 240 points.

Seager is one of 899 students in New York state and one of two students in the county to be named a semifinalist. About 1.5 million students nationwide take the test, and only 50,000 become semifinalists or commended students.

“I was excited,” Seager said.

“I was very surprised,” Lehman said.

Commended students do not continue on in the competition, while the 16,000 semifinalists will find out in March if they are named among the 15,000 finalists. Seager scored a 221.

Both students are very involved in school activities. Seager runs cross country and plays tenor saxophone for the school band. He is also active in jazz band, the pit orchestra for school musicals and the pep band for sporting events. Seager volunteers a lot in the community, such as at soup kitchens or the community marching band in Sanborn.

“It gets very busy at my house,” Seager said.

Lehman has run cross country and played softball and basketball for Wilson. She also plays the flute in band, is involved with the school paper and her church, Ridgewood Bible Church. Her college plans include studying statistics.

“I just like math a lot,” Lehman said.

Seager said he wants to study nuclear engineering in college. Seager said his grandfather and uncle have studied the same field at Purdue University, and his interest was intensified by a visit to Pennsylvania State University.

Guidance counselor JoAnn Carpenter said both Seager and Lehman have a number of college credits already. Lehman is taking college-level calculus, French, physics and English. Seager has received credit by taking a Spanish college level exam and advanced placement exams in U.S. and European history.

“He’ll be going to school with 25 credits,” Carpenter said.

Contact reporter Joe Olenick at 439-9222, ext. 6241.