News : Second cousins Jacob Isbell, Luke Moen named National Merit semi-finalists

Jacob Isbell and Luke Moen are among 16,000 National Merit Scholarship semi-finalists.

Last year, approximately 1.5 million of the top students planning to graduate in 2014 took the Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test.

A little more than 1 percent of those – 16,000 – have been named semi-finalists. Those 16,000 top-scorers include two students from Vinton-Shellsburg: Second cousins Jacob Isbell and Luke Moen.

“It’s quite and honor to be named a semi-finalist, and it’s very rare for one school to have two of them,” said Vinton-Shellsburg High School Principal Matt Kingsbury.

Of the 16,000 semi-finalists, 15,000 will become finalists; 2,500 of them will receive a $2,500 National Merit Scholarship. Also, the finalists will qualify for more scholarships at many universities.

For Luke and Jacob, the next step in the process is writing essays. School officials are also preparing recommendations based on their academics as well as their involvement in school, community and work. High SAT scores are another requirement for finalists.

“These are two very good role models,” says Kingsbury.

Luke, the son of Sam and Jennie Moen of Vinton, plans to attend Yale, or perhaps the University of Iowa, with a Pre-Med Major. His activities include baseball.

Jacob, the son of Jake and Sherri Isbell of Vinton, plans to major in physics, probably at the University of Chicago. He participates in band and cross country, and was one of the drummers for the 2013 Jazz Band that went to the State Championships.