Contact: Tammy Lane • First Posted: Wednesday, September 30, 2009

Fayette County Public Schools boasts six of Kentucky’s 20 semifinalists in the annual National Achievement Scholarship Program.

• From Lafayette High School: Jessika Cummins.
• From Tates Creek High School: Kamron Cox and Devin Etling-Turner.
• From Paul Laurence Dunbar High School: Anna Kiluba, James Mason and Ebony Rowe.

They are among the more than 1,600 African-American high school seniors who now will compete for roughly 800 awards worth more than $2.6 million.

Most of these students are expected to fulfill additional requirements and advance to the finalist level. Scholarship winners will be selected on the basis of their abilities, accomplishments and potential for success in rigorous college studies.

More than 160,000 high school juniors entered the National Achievement competition when they took the 2008 Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test (psat/nmsqt®). Semifinalists were designated within geographic regions and are the highest-scoring program entrants in the states of each region.

Finalists will vie for one of the 700 one-time National Achievement $2,500 scholarships, which will be awarded on a regional representation basis. In addition, corporate and business sponsors will underwrite about 100 awards.

Winners will be announced in April.