Countywide : 20 Students in County Chosen as Merit Scholars

The National Merit Scholarship Corp. has named 20 Orange County high school students to receive college-sponsored Merit Scholarships. They are among 2,450 winners nationwide.

The Merit scholars will enter about 190 colleges and universities in 42 states. Each was chosen by officials of the sponsoring institution, and only finalists who reported they planned to attend that institution were considered. Each recipient will receive a stipend of between $1,000 to $8,000 over four years.

The winners are in the last of three groups of National Merit scholars to be named this year. More than 1 million high school juniors from 18,000 public and independent secondary schools competed by taking a qualifying examination given by the National Merit Scholarship Corp., based in Evanston, Ill. Of those, 15,000 became semifinalists. About 5,700 scholarships, worth more than $20 million, have been awarded.

The Orange County winners:

Anh Tuan Le, Valencia High School, Placentia (Placentia Unified School District); Derby Davidson and Kimi Y. Oyama, both from John F. Kennedy High School, La Palma, and Rebecca S. Ebert and Randy L. Moyer, both from Cypress High School, Cypress (all in Anaheim Union High School District); Mark E. Lewis, Newport Christian High School, Newport Beach; John K. Moynihan, El Toro High School, El Toro (Saddleback Valley Unified School District).

Also, Ken D. Easton, Fullerton High School, Fullerton, and Laurel L. Stevens, La Habra High School, La Habra (both in Fullerton Union High School District); Jessica P. Wu, Pacifica High School, and Timothy T. Broberg, Garden Grove High School, both of Garden Grove (both in Garden Grove Unified School District).

Also, James R. Eckloff, Eric K. Gustafson and Matthew J. Weaver, all from Edison High School, Huntington Beach (Huntington Beach Union High School District); Sheila M. Huettl, Kenneth A. Schwartz, and Peter G. Miller, all from University High School, Irvine (all in Irvine Unified School District).

Also, Gregory P. Lombardi, Mater Dei High School, a parochial school in Santa Ana; Jamie L. Allnutt, Villa Park High School, Villa Park, and Paul M. Parashak, El Modena High School, Orange (both in Orange Unified School District).