Odessa seniors await decision on scholarship

Adam Vore and Charisma Desai didn’t rely on getting extra sleep or eating a larger breakfast to help them on the day of their Preliminary SAT; they just prepared early and took the test calmly.

Still, both Odessa High School seniors were recognized as Texas semifinalists for the National Merit Scholarship based on their 2010 PSAT scores.

Charisma said the night before the test she looked over a practice exam and went to bed.

“I clear my mind and concentrate on each problem, one at a time,” she said.

Charisma, who is an International Baccalaureate Scholar and Advanced Placement Scholar, earned a perfect score of a 240 on her exam. She is one of 18 students in Texas to earn a perfect score on the PSAT.

“I was really excited,” she said. “My counselor told me I was the first at OHS to get the perfect score.”

Of the estimated 16,000 students nationally recognized as semifinalists, 90 percent are expected to be named finalists. Adam and Charisma were the only students this year from Ector County Independent School District to be named semifinalists. They will know if they qualified as finalists by mid-February.

Being named a finalist in the National Merit Scholarship competition will help students garner the attention of their top university choice and earn larger scholarships.

Odessa High School will also award the students $1,000 if they are named finalists, or $750 for being recognized or named semifinalists.

Adam, who earned a 219 on the PSAT and is also an AP Scholar, hopes to use his scholarship money at Brigham Young University. He said he did not take the exam with a goal of being named a finalist, but understands the benefits of doing well on the exam.

“It’s a big thing,” he said. “Even just being a semifinalist is great for scholarships.”

Both Charisma and Adam are devoted students who are involved in multiple school organizations and place academics as a top priority.

Mary Neff, coordinator for the IB and AP programs at Odessa High, said both students were standouts in their classes. She said the high school has had several National Merit Scholarship semifinalists over the years, with the most recent from the 2009-10 school year.

“I’m proud of Odessa because we’re pretty consistent over the years with our recognition,” she said.

The National Merit Scholarship recognizes the high scores of about 50,000 students from the estimated 1.5 million who apply. In ECISD, nine additional students were also nationally recognized for their high PSAT scores.

The commended students are: Michaela Anang and Jesse Norris from Odessa High School, and Anthony Culpepper, Andrew Crain, Schuyler Stallcup and Luke Anderson from Permian High School.

Jonathan Ortiz from Odessa High School, and Alexander Adame and Tenesia Pointer from Permian High School were recognized by the College Board’s National Hispanic Recognition Program for their scores on 2010 PSAT. Pointer was also recognized as a National Merit African American Commended Scholar.

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