Deshpande, Horn represent LHS as National Merit Scholars
October 20, 2008
Filed under Features, News
This year’s National Merit Scholars are seniors Renu Deshponde and Mitchell Horn.
Out of 1.4 million entrants, only 16,000 students with the highest PSAT scores qualify for recognition in the National Merit Scholarship Program.
And this year, seniors Mitchell Horn and Renu Deshpande both qualified for this award due to scoring a 99 percentile on their PSATs they took last October.
“I found out I was a National Merit Scholar the week before Ike shut the school from Testing Principal Shelly Slaton,” Horn said. “When I found out I was completely shocked and I remember thinking ‘Is this real?’ and asking if she was serious.”
While Horn has had some time to get over the initial shock, he said it is still hard to believe.
“I am extremely happy and am honestly surprised this is happening,” Horn said. “I feel so honored.”
While most students would assume Horn studied a lot to achieve his score, he said he did not.
“I did study some, but not as much as people might think,” Horn said. “I mainly concentrated on the reading section because that always gives me the biggest trouble.”
According to Deshpande, she also studied as well to increase her scores.
“I studied throughout the summer to help me do well,” Deshpande said. “Now I know that it paid off and I could not be more happy.”
However, Deshpande was not the only one who was happy about her time paying off.
“My parents are really proud and excited,” Deshpande said. “They could not believe that I did it, especially since I am only 16 and they consider it such an honor.”
And now that Deshpande and Horn have received this honor, they get all the perks that comes along with it.
“It gives us the chance to earn college scholarships and it is something that we could use for college applications,” Horn said. “I just have to find out where I want to go first.”
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