15 Students Earn Merit Scholarships

Fifteen high school students from the San Fernando Valley are among 2,000 recipients of $2,000 National Merit Scholarships for 1993.

Van Nuys High School was the big winner from the Valley with four recipients of the awards, which are handed out by the nonprofit National Merit Scholarship Corp.

“We’re proud of the whole batch of finalists, whether they won money or not,” college counselor Carolyn Barnhart said.

“Every one of the students is just a neat kid.”

Among the Van Nuys winners was Ben Young. His twin, Ted, has already been offered a scholarship to Northwestern University, Barnhart said.

The Harvard-Westlake School, a private, coeducational school whose 7th- through 12th-grade students attend a campus in Studio City, celebrated three winners Tuesday.

“They have all compiled really outstanding records here at school,” headmaster Thomas C. Hudnut said of the trio.

Noting that two of the three have worked for the school’s prize-winning newspaper and another is a champion debater, Hudnut added, “each of them has been involved in the life of the school as well as the life of the mind.”

The National Merit Scholarships, founded in 1955, honor students based on superior academic and extracurricular accomplishments, reflecting their potential to flourish in college.

A committee consisting of college admissions officers and secondary-school counselors chose this year’s winners from about 14,000 finalists.

Winners of scholarships sponsored by corporations were announced last month, and those winning scholarships from institutions of higher education will be announced next month.

Valley-area winners of National Merit Scholarships announced Tuesday are:

Nancy Kim and Vivian F. Shu, both of Agoura Hills and Agoura High School; Yi-Ling Kao of Canoga Park and Taft High School; Mitchell B. Berger and Yu-Han Tu, both of Chatsworth and Chatsworth High School.

Vishnu S. Menon and Spencer M. Rascoff, both of Beverly Hills and Harvard-Westlake School; Helen S. Kim of Van Nuys and Harvard-Westlake School; Marla A. Smith of Thousand Oaks, Westlake High School.

Monica Faye of Northridge, Cleveland High School; David C. Yi of Los Angeles, North Hollywood High School; Dov P. Grossman and Tim T. Nakada, both of Los Angeles and Van Nuys High School.

Jennifer N. Jurick and Ben Y. Young, both of West Hills and Van Nuys High School.