Chris Lau Named National Merit Semi-Finalist
Huntington High School senior Christopher Lau has been named a 2009 National Merit Scholarship semi-finalist. He is one of just 941 students across the state to earn the distinction and is now in the running for even bigger honors.
Huntington Principal Carmela Leonardi informed Mr. Lau of the good news and congratulated him on “this high achievement” late last week at a meeting with the Peter Paternostro, the district’s director of guidance and Jayne Hallett, a guidance counselor at the school.
Mr. Lau is vice-president of student government, a member of the varsity basketball and track teams, plays the Sousaphone (and is section leader) in the marching band and is a member of Habitat for Humanity and the triathlon club. He is also vice-president of the National Honor Society and the Italian National Honor Society chapters at the school and is a member of the English Honor Society and Math National Honor Society, as well.
"I am very excited to have made it this far in the competition,” Mr. Lau said. “It is truly an honor." Semi-finalists have an opportunity to continue in the competition, which will culminate in the naming of National Merit finalists in February 2009. About 90 percent of the semi-finalists will eventually be named finalists in the program. Of those, 8,200 will be selected to receive a financial scholarship award.
“Chris will now have to undertake a comprehensive application process,” Dr. Leonardi said about the next step in the competition that began in 1955. “We are, of course, very proud of him and recognize the honor the school receives because of his efforts.”
Outside of the school community, Mr. Lau is involved in Project Nicaragua. He traveled to Amatitan, Nicaragua last February with a church group to build houses. Along with his twin brother, Alex, Mr. Lau raised $3,500 for Amatitan, which almost entirely paid for the construction of two houses.
Mr. Lau also volunteers at a homeless shelter through the Huntington Interfaith Homeless Initiative and he does volunteer work for Peace & Plenty Interfaith Food Outreach.
Currently, Mr. Lau plans to major in finance in college and is considering applying to the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania. In his free time he enjoys playing football, volleyball and other sports with his friends and family and enjoys participating in fantasy sports leagues.
This year’s National Merit competition drew more than 1.5 million juniors from 21,000 high schools. The students “entered the 2009 National Merit Program by taking the 2007 Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test (PSAT/NMSQT), which served as an initial screen of program entrants,” according to the National Merit website. “The nationwide pool of semi-finalists, which represents less than one percent of U.S. high school seniors, includes the highest scoring entrants in each state.”
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