Twenty-two Montgomery County Public Schools (MCPS) seniors have been selected as candidates for the year 2001 Presidential Scholars awards, one of the highest honors given to U.S. high school seniors.

The students were selected from high school seniors nationwide for their exceptionally high scores on the Scholastic Assessment Test (SAT) or the American College Testing (ACT) assessment. Nationwide, more than 2,600 candidates were chosen, 61 from Maryland. In addition, up to 50 students nationwide are selected as Presidential Scholars candidates for the arts component of the program.

The MCPS candidates are:

§ Montgomery Blair High School: Cyrus Hadadi, Daniel Halperin, Nancy Ku, Jean Li, Robert Jin, Hao Ye, Rebeca Packer, Gregory Tucker, Hayley Wynn

§ Winston Churchill High School: Nick Christenson

§ Walter Johnson High School: Rebecca Kahane, Bryant Lee

§ Richard Montgomery High School: Hayoung Choi, Jacob Leibenluft, Ryan Mead, Jonathan Shermanpresser

§ Watkins Mill High School: Jacob Wilson

§ Walt Whitman High School: Nichole Collins, Maya Simon, Pratheev Sreetharan

§ Thomas S. Wootton High School: Devarati Mitra, Jenny Zhang

In late March, a panel of educators will select 500 semifinalists on the basis of their essays, self-assessments, descriptions of activities, school recommendations, and school transcripts.

In April, the White House Commission on Presidential Scholars, will select one young man and one young woman from each state, D.C., Puerto Rico and U.S. students living abroad; up to 20 students from the creative and performing arts; and 15 students at-large.

Scholars will be invited to Washington, D.C., in June to receive the Presidential Scholars medallion at a White House ceremony and to participate in a range of activities.