Conard Students Honored as National Merit, Achievement Scholars

Two Conard High School students have been named Semifinalists in prestigious scholarship competitions.

By Ronni Newton

Conard High School senior Alec Ferguson-Hull has been named a National Merit Scholarship Semifinalist, and senior Huda Samakaab is a Semifinalist in the National Achievement Scholarship Competition.

Huda Samakaab. Photo credit: Ronni Newton

“I was pretty surprised,” said Huda, when she learned she had been named a Semifinalist. “I thought I was pretty average,” she said.

Huda said that her dad is her role model, and he has always encouraged her to keep up her work ethic. She said she doesn’t have a favorite teacher or subject. “I like all of my teachers, all my subjects.”

Conard Principal Julio Duarte said he loves being able to call parents with positive news about their children. “It was nice to hear how proud of you he was,” Duarte said to Huda about the conversation with her dad.

Huda is a member of the National Honor Society. She is very interested in attending college nearby, and some of her top choices are Yale, Trinity, and Quinnipiac.

Alec was also surprised to be named a Semifinalist, and said he did not study for the PSAT. “It wasn’t acutally something I was really expecting. I just figured I’d go out there, try it, and see what I could do.”

Alec Ferguson-Hull. Photo credit: Ronni Newton

Math is Alec’s strongest area. “It’s very straightforward, very logical,” he said. He has narrowed his top college choices to Weslyan, Williams, and Bowdoin. Alec doesn’t yet know what he’d like to study in college, but said he greatly values a liberal arts education.

Alec plans to continue to run cross country and track at the Division III level, and that has impacted his college choices. “You’re going to college to get an education. I would hate for that to be wasted,” he said regarding his decision not to pursue more athletically-intense Division I schools.

In addition to being a top student and three-season athlete, Alec is also one of the co-leaders of Conard’s Be S#arp a capella group (he spends many hours on musical arrangements), a National Honor Society member, class board member, jazz band member, and he plays in the pit orchestra for school musicals.

He said he looks to his brother (Evan, a Conard graduate who is now a sophomore at Bates) and other slightly older passionate and talented students as “peer role models.”

“It’s great to have two students represent Conard in these programs,” said Duarte. “They are hardworking kids who are a real testament to students here who have so much to juggle and are able to stay focused.”

About the programs:

National Merit Scholarship Semifinalists have the opportunity to compete for 7,600 National Merit Scholarships worth more than $33 million that will be offered next spring. To be considered for a Merit Scholarship award, Semifinalists must fulfill several requirements to advance to the Finalist level of the competition.

About 90 percent of the Semifinalists are expected to attain Finalist standing, and more than half of the Finalists will win a National Merit Scholarship, earning the Merit Scholar title.

Semifinalists are the highest scorers in each of the 50 states, and scored among the top 1 percent of the approximately 1.4 million juniors who took the PSAT test in the fall of 2013.

The National Achievement Scholarship Program is conducted by the National Merit Scholarship Corporation, and is a privately financed competiiton established in 1964 to provide recognition for outstanding Black American high school students. Approximately 1,600 students (1 percent of those who entered the competition) qualified as semifinalists based on the PSAT test in the fall of 2013, and have the opportunity to advance inthe Achievement Scholarship competition.

Approximately 80 percent of the Semifinalists will be named Finalists and more than half of the Finalists will recdeive National Achievement Scholarships.