A Vickburg teen who attends school in the Jackson area has been named a semifinalist in the 2009 National Merit Scholarship Program.  

Carolyn Wynne Campbell, a senior at St. Andrews Episcopal in Ridgeland, is the daughter of Virginia and Charles G. Campbell. She hopes to attend Wake Forest or Furman University and major in public policy and philosophy with the goal of continuing to law school.

At St. Andrews, Campell is a member of the National Honor Society, Fellowship of Christian Athletes, Spanish Club and the swim, student admissions, mock trial, speech and debate teams.

Campbell joins two other Vicksburg students in being named National Merit semifinalists — Kiefer D. Slaton, a senior at Vicksburg High and the son of Kimble and Susan Slaton; and Rachel C. Clarke, a senior at St. Aloysius and the daughter of Douglas and Joan Clarke.

About 16,000 National Merit Semifinalists were chosen from more than 1.5 million applicants. Semifinalists make up less than 1 percent of the national high school population and are chosen based on scores from the Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test; 144 of the semifinalist are from Mississippi.

National Merit Finalists will be announced in February. About 15,000 students are expected to advance to the Finalist level and those students will then compete for some $35 million in scholarships. In the 2008 National Merit program, one student from Vicksburg was named a finalist.

The National Merit Scholarship Program, established in 1955, is a nonprofit organization.