Perrysburg Board of Education President Eric Benington, right, hands out recognition certificates during the Monday Board of Education meeting to Ella Sibbersen, left, and Nikhil Methi, who are National Merit finalists.
PERRYSBURG — The Perrysburg Board of Education on Monday recognized the district’s National Merit finalists and major donor to the After Prom Committee.
The district has four students who are National Merit Finalists this year: Andrew Chung, Nikhil Methi, Ella Sibbersen and James Xiao.
Sibbersen and Methi attended the meeting and were given certificates recognizing their accomplishment.
“Just to put it in perspective, 1.5 million students take the PSAT every year,” Perrysburg High School Assistant Principal Kellie Johnson said.
Performance on the Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test determines if a student first qualifies as a semifinalist for the National Merit Scholarship. Those who qualify then can advance to the finalist level and compete for National Merit Scholarships. About 16,000 academically talented students make it to the semifinalist level and of those, approximately 7,250 finalists will be chosen as Merit Scholarship winners in the 2023 competition.
“We have four of them at Perrysburg High School, which is amazing,” Johnson said.
They are competing for one of 2,500 National Merit $2500 Scholarships, but they may also win one of the 950 corporate-sponsored Merit Scholarship awards, and possibly one of the 3,800 college-sponsored Merit Scholarships.
Methi is planning on attending Duke University and majoring in bio-engineering. Sibbersen is planning on studying biology, but has not decided on where she will be attending college.
Both students thanked teachers and their parents.
Chung and Xiao were not able to attend the meeting.
Another recognition was given to Rick Ruffner and O-Deer Diner, for his activities working with the After Prom Committee and his annual donation.
Superintendent Tom Hosler explained how Ruffner, with his ice cream shop business, O-Deer Diner, stepped up to the plate to help the After Prom Committee a number of years ago.
“That is an event where parents raise money and come together to give students a safe place to go after prom. At the last minute we had a group that had donated consistently, pull out, and the parents were scrambling,” Hosler said of the annual donation.
Hosler said that Ruffner came up with the idea for a car show, with a variety of activities, such as a 50/50, that is meant for the program.
“Year after year Rick and his team have come through for us, and we are just so grateful that we have that kind of relationship with our business community, especially with your leadership. It has been a huge addition,” Hosler said.
The donation totalled $3,014 this year.
”This year’s donation brings the grand total of our donations to $27,245, for the many years we’ve been doing this,” Ruffner said. “We do think it’s a great event, the After Prom.”
