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WC senior is a National Merit Scholarship semi-finalist

— Daily Freeman-Journal photo by Courtney Sogard Austin Lampman stands next to his favorite poem written by Rudyard Kipling. The poem, located outside the high school weightroom, encourages him to keep striving to achieve his own goals, according to Lampman.

Webster City High School Senior, Austin Lampman has been named a National Merit Scholarship Semi-finalist for the 2018-2019 school year.

Lampman, the son of Jeffrey and Amy Lampman, is one of the 144 students from Iowa to receive this honor, as well as one of only two students from the North Central Conference to achieve this honor, according to Webster City Principal Brent Jorth.

Lampman is very much involved with his school and the community. He’s on the high school football, track, and baseball teams, is treasurer of the National Honors Society, is involved with the St. Thomas Aquinas church, and works part-time at Fareway — all while maintaining a 4.0 grade point average.

“I was really excited to receive the news, obviously it’s a great honor. There’s been a lot of people that have helped me get to where I am at today, like my parents, teachers, and coaches,” said Lampman. “They have all helped me out. Helped me to develop a good work ethic, which I think is pivotal in being successful in both academics and athletics, and in the world in general.”

In order to grasp what an honor it is to achieve such an accomplishment, one must first know how many students had actually entered into such an academic feat. As many as 1.6 million students entered the process when taking the PSAT, which is the Preliminary SAT or National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test. The PSAT is a “standardized test administered by the College Board and cosponsored by the National Merit Scholarship Corporation in the United States, according to Jorth.

Out of the 1.6 million students, only 16,000 were recognized as semi-finalists, like Lampman. After becoming a semi-finalist, Lampman then had to complete an application process, in which the school had to submit all the classes he had taken at the High School and Iowa Central Community College, a recommendation letter from Jorth, and Sally Greenfield, the school counselor and PSAT instructor had to compile more information of all of his coursework taken throughout his high school career.

Seven-thousand, five-hundred students nationwide will become finalists this Spring of 2019. Lampman hopes to be among them. These students will receive a $2,500 single payment towards the college of their choice. One thousand students will then be selected to receive the corporate scholarships, which can be renewed each year of college if they continue to submit applications, with the scholarships ranging from $1,000 to $10,000, said Jorth.

“We are very proud of Austin and the work that he’s done inside and outside of the classroom,” said Jorth. “At the same time there’s a great sense of pride in what his teachers K-12 have helped him to achieve. The community should be very proud.”

Lampman has applied to Drake University in Des Moines and Creighton University, in Omaha, NE. He plans to go to school for the 8 years of schooling it takes to become a pharmacist.

“I typically expect a lot of myself, I have high expectations,” said Lampman. “It’s been an affirmation of the goals I’ve set for myself. I want to keep working and achieving all my goals.”

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