The Dunham School is pleased to announce that seniors Ana Luisa Rodriguez and Anna Claire Saffell have been named  National Merit Commended students by the National Merit Scholarship Corporation in recognition of their outstanding academic promise.

Ana Luisa, daughter of Dr. Ricardo and Tess Rodriguez, has been a student at The Dunham School since third grade. She also received academic recognition as an Advanced Placement Scholar earlier this year. The honor student swims for the Dunham “Aqua Tigers” varsity swim team. Her top college choices include the University of Notre Dame and Wake Forest University. Ana plans to major in either applied mathematics or nutrition in college.

Anna Claire, daughter of Scott and Jessica Saffell, is in her eighth year at Dunham. In addition to her academic work, Anna Claire is also  a varsity cheerleader.  She hopes to pursue a degree in engineering or another math related field at either Vanderbilt University or Auburn University.

High school students enter the National Merit Program by taking the Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test (PSAT-NMSQT). Approximately 1.5 million high school students take the PSAT each year in October. Of those, 50,000 (3.3%) qualify as National Merit Commended Students or Scholar Semifinalists.