Two students from Vicksburg are National Merit Scholarship semifinalists.

Bradley P. Scurria, the son of Phil and Cindy Scurria, is a senior at Warren Central High School.

Avery Burrell, the daughter of Jack and Virginia Burrell, is a senior at St. Andrew’s Episcopal School in Ridgeland.

Bradley hopes to attend Louisiana State University and is undecided on a major.

He is a member of the varsity football and Quiz Bowl teams, as well as Mu Alpha Theta honor society. Bradley is a percussionist in the Big Blue Band. He is co-president of the Crawford Street United Methodist Church youth group and is part of Service Over Self, a volunteer home repair group.

Avery is considering seven or eight colleges, and plans to study pre-med. She spent a month in Argentina this past summer as part of a cultural exchange program, and has a perfect ACT score of 36.

Avery is part of the Vicksburg Swim Association and the St. Andrew’s swim and dance teams. She attended the Mississippi Governor’s School, a summer program for the academically talented, and is a dancer and pianist.

About 16,000 National Merit Semifinalists were chosen from more than 1.5 million applicants. Semifinalists represent less than 1 percent of U.S. high school seniors, and are chosen based on scores from the Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test.

Bradley and Avery are among 143 Mississippi semifinalists. Finalists will be announced in April.

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Contact Manivanh Chanprasith at mchan@vicksburgpost.com