Bellingham public schools have four semifinalists and 13 commended students in the 2013 National Merit Scholarship Competition, according to a district press release.

To qualify for the competition, students took the Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test during the 2011-12 school year.

District National Merit Scholarship semifinalists are Sehome High School students Kara Junttila and Zoe Sheinkopf and Squalicum High School students Anthony Goo and Hannah Truong.

For semifinalists to become finalists, students must have an excellent academic record throughout high school, be recommended by the principal, submit a scholarship application and receive SAT scores that match the student's performance on the earlier test. Finalists will be announced in winter 2013.

District commended students are:

Bellingham High School: Saskia Comess, Jaime Korner, Magdalene Murphy and Jesse Ashworth-Marin.

Sehome: Andrew Boyer, Rowan Hinkle-Johnson, Emily McCracken, Nico Morrow and Liam Toney.

Squalicum: Zoe Peterson, Zoe Roberts, Tyler VonFeldt and Caroline Wilson.

Commended students will no longer continue in the competition, but placed in the top five percent of 1.5 million students who entered the competition, according to the National Merit Scholarship Corporation. They receive a letter for their academic honor.

The College Board recently announced the 2012-13 National Hispanic Recognition Program Scholars. Bellingham High student Nicholas Estrada and Squalicum High student Diana Sanchez both received this honor this year for excellence in academic achievement. They were among the 5,000 students selected from a pool of 253,000 who took the 2011 test. Students with a GPA of 3.5 or higher are designated as Scholars.

EVERSON PRINCIPAL GETS GOLDEN APPLE AWARD

The Whatcom County Library System presented its Golden Apple Award to Kevin DeVere, principal of Everson Elementary School, according to a press release.

The annual award goes to an outstanding Whatcom County educator who connects students to the public library.

Here's what Everson library manager Eileen Shaw said about the principal:

"Kevin has always been extremely supportive of the library, kids, and reading. He invites our library staff to use some of their precious time every spring during their well-attended assembly to promote the summer reading program. He also takes the initiative to invite us to their fall open houses - he prepares tables for us at the front entry, offers refreshments, and anything else needed. He is always more than willing to distribute information about library programs in the school.

"Kevin also reaches out to the non-English-speaking communities in the Everson area. He partnered with the Everson Library to provide computer classes for our Hispanic community."

The award was presented at the annual All Friends and Foundation Gathering on Nov. 3.

Out and About runs Mondays in The Bellingham Herald. Julie Shirley is the Executive Editor of The Bellingham Herald. Contact her at julie.shirley@bellinghamherald.com or call 360-715-2261.

Reach JULIE SHIRLEY at julie.shirley@bellinghamherald.com or call 715-2261.