SOCIETY Helping Hands Champions for Children Awards Pages 4-5
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Congratulations
VOLUME 35 ISSUE 20 - SINCE 1986
W E S TA U S T I N N E W S . C O M
OCTOBER 20, 2022
Area National Merit Scholarship SemifinalistS By Anne DeVries
SEMIFINALISTS
T
he National Merit Scholarship Corporation (NMSC) has officially announced the 16,000 nationwide Semifinalists in their 68th annual National Merit Scholarship Program. Fourteen area students are amongst this elite group who have been recognized for their outstanding performance on the 2021 Preliminary SAT/ National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test.
The nationwide pool of Semifinalists represents less than one percent of U.S. high school seniors. These highachieving students will have an opportunity to compete for approximately 7,250 National Merit Scholarships to be offered in the spring of 2023. To be considered for a National Merit Scholarship, a semifinalist must have an outstanding academic record throughout high school, be endorsed and recommended by a high school official, write an essay, and earn SAT or ACT scores that confirm the student’s earlier performance on the qualifying test. The goal of the NMSC is to honor the nation’s scholastic champions and encourage high school students to pursue academic excellence. Congratulations to the West Austin Students who have earned the honor of becoming a National Merit Scholarship Semifinalist.
ACTON ACADEMY ▲ Ian Watson-Hemphill ANDERSON HIGH SCHOOL ▲ Ilan Ben-Avi STEPHEN F. AUSTIN HIGH SCHOOL ▲ Hudson Maebius MCCALLUM HIGH ' # &' ( & % %
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SCHOOL ▲ Vaughn Vandegrift REGENTS SCHOOL OF AUSTIN ▲ Tyler Kuo ▲ Dixon Wu ST. ANDREW’S EPISCOPAL SCHOOL ▲ Clayton Goldsmith
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ST. MICHAEL’S CATHOLIC ACADEMY ▲ Katherine Greff ▲ Peter Williams ST. STEPHEN’S EPISCOPAL SCHOOL ▲ Sarah Aggarwal ▲ Crawford Amow ▲ William Casas ▲ Matthew Rowe
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Westminster Presbyterian hosts CROP Hunger Walk leaders By Alana Moehring Mallard
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PHOTO ALANA MOEHRING MALLARD
Leaders of top congregational fundraising teams for Austin’s CROP Hunger Walk met recently at Westminister Presbyterian Church for a wrap-up of 2022 fundraising efforts and to look forward to CROP Hunger Walk 2023. Nearly $80,000 was raised in this year’s virtual walk by congregations all across Central Texas, with money going to Church World Service global efforts as well as local Austin agencies. The Austin walk for hunger is one of the nation’s ten top fundraising walks for
Church World Service, and Westminister Presbyterian consistently ranks in the top of Austin’s CROP Hunger Walk congregational teams, raising more than $10,000 for the 2022 hunger walk. Westminister’s CROP team and team leader Nancy Ebert were recognized by Church World Service with a “Cream of the Crop” award for their continued leadership. Westminister’s Elise Ragland was the 2023 walk’s top fundraiser. “I am a recruiter,” said Ragland of her success at fundraising for hunger, “and I love fundraising and recruiting
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– kids, their parents, families, couples. You just have to ask.” Austin’s 2023 Hunger Walk will be Sunday, March 5, at Camp Mabry – an in-person walk for the first time in three years. Local recipients for 2023 will be Central Texas Food Bank, Manos de Cristo, Sustainable Food Center, iACT Refugee Services, Hope Food Pantry, Austin City Lutherans Bread for All, Refugee Services of Texas, and Mt. Olive Food Pantry. As many as 828 million people, about 1 in 10, go to bed hungry every night, according to Church World Service.
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