Nearly four dozen Gwinnett County students are one step closer to earning prestigious scholarships to college. The National Merit Scholarship Corporation recently announced 46 high school seniors were named 2012 National Merit Scholarship Program Semifinalists. Approximately 16,000 students across the nation also received the honor.

The semifinalists from Snellville schools are:

Brookwood High School
John T. Chamberlin

Zachary D. Freshley

Anna T. Hernick

Shushmita Hoque

Minhyuk M. Song

Matthew L. Townsend

Drew A. Vander Wood

Tony Zhang

Stephanie P. Zheng

These students were selected based upon college exam scores. They will go on to compete to win one of 8,300 National Merit Scholarships, worth more than $34 million which will be awarded in the spring of 2012.