Staff report

Nansemond River High School senior LaShawndra Walker has been named as the only Suffolk semifinalist in the 2006 National Achievement Scholarship Program.

The National Achievement Scholarship Program announced the names of approximately 1,600 semifinalists in its 42nd annual academic competition for African-American high school students.

These scholastically talented young men and women now have an opportunity to continue in the competition for approximately 800 Achievement Scholarship awards, worth some $2.5 million, that will be offered next spring for college undergraduate study.

In addition to Walkers recognition, five Nansemond River High School 2005 graduates have earned the designations of &uot;AP Scholar&uot; by the College Board in recognition of their exceptional achievement on the college-level Advanced Placement program exams.

Sara Garrett, Payton Hoegh, Katherine Toscano and Cory Wells were granted AP Scholar for receiving scores of 3 or higher on three or more AP Exams.

Brian Tucker was granted AP Scholar with Honor for receiving an average score of at least 3.25 on all AP Exams taken, and scores of 3 or higher on four or more exams.

The College Board’s Advanced Placement program offers students the opportunity to take challenging college-level courses while still in high school, and to receive college credit, advanced placement, or both for successful performance on the AP Exams.

About 18 percent of the more than one million high school students in more than 15,000 secondary schools worldwide who took AP Exams performed at a sufficiently high level to merit the recognition of AP Scholar.