Isaac Lanigan

WELLSBURG — A Brooke High School student has been named a semifinalist in the National Merit Scholarship Program.

Isaac Lanigan, a senior at Brooke, is one of 26 West Virginia students and more than 16,000 students throughout the U.S. who will compete for one of 2,500 $2,500 in scholarships awarded through the program.

He is the son of Sara and Josh Roark and Patrick and Natalie Lanigan.

Lanigan is one of about 1.3 million high school students who qualified for semifinalist by scoring within the top 1 percent of those taking the Preliminary SAT college entrance examination their junior year and earned SAT or ACT scores confirming their earlier performance.

They also were required to submit an application, with support from a school official, that detailed their academic record, involvement in school and community activities, leadership abilities, employment and honors as well as an essay written by the student.

Finalists for National Merit Scholarships will be named in February.

In addition to the scholarships awarded by the National Merit Scholarship Corp., a not-for-profit organization, the finalists may qualify for National Merit Scholarships sponsored by about 150 corporations and 150 colleges and universities.

Not supported by any government entity, the National Merit Scholarship Program was established in 1955 to help further the educations of outstanding high school students.