Local Student, Kathleen Addison, Named National Merit Scholar

BRADENTON -- On May 5, Timothy McGuire, the president of the National Merit Scholarship Corporation announced that Kathleen Addison, a senior at Saint Stephen's Episcopal School was named a National Merit Scholar, one of the nation's top academic awards.

Each of the 2,500 students named across America achieved outstanding scores on the PSAT tests, the SAT tests, attained an exceptionally high school GPA and demonstrated campus and community leadership. A cheerleader, Addison is also the student council VP, an intern at Mote Marine, and co-founder of the nationally acclaimed History Heard education project.

She will attend Yale University in the fall where she was recently named as one of the elite students accepted to Yale's prestigious Directed Studies program. Yale accepted only 6% of more than 20,000 applicants and fewer than 10% of the admitted Yale freshmen were then invited to the Directed Studies program.

About becoming a National Merit Scholar, Addison stated that she was "thrilled" to be named a National Merit Scholar and continued, "I certainly hope this encourages younger students to realize that they can reach their dreams too . . . so dream big!"