Fourteen seniors from Conejo Valley Unified School District (CVUSD) high schools qualified as semifinalists for the 2006 National Merit Scholarship Awards. They will continue competing for the awards, which will be presented in the spring.

“Semifinalists represent less than 1 percent of each state’s high school seniors,” said Newbury Park High School Principal Max Beaman. The semifinalists with the highest score in each state are given the opportunity to advance in the competition.

Contest officials say nearly 90 percent of the semifinalists will be named finalists, and about half of those students will win scholarships.

Monies awarded to National Merit Scholars total $30 million and come from 300 local and national businesses and nearly 200 colleges and universities throughout the United States.

All of the semifinalists have maintained outstanding academic grades, earned high scores on their SATs and received recommendations from their principals.

Most of the CVUSD semifinalists were introduced and recognized by the Board of Education at its Oct. 11 meeting.

Beaman presented two of the three semifinalists from NPHS. Thousand Oaks High School Principal Tim Carpenter introduced five of his school’s six winners and Westlake High School Principal Ronald Lipari recognized the five winners from his school.

The 14 semifinalists are:

Newbury Park High School: Alan Gilder, Satina Cooper and Douglas Austin

Thousand Oaks High School: Randy K. Jokela, Elizabeth S. Ritch, Steven Y. Sun, Ariel Wen, Frank Haizhi Zhang and May Zhang

Westlake High School: Eilish Marie Boisvert, Bo Chen, Kimberly N. Liu, Max S. Tomlinson III and Jing Zeng