Christine Boucher, a Deering High School senior, and Gavin Bauer, a Portland High School senior, have been named National Merit semifinalists based on their performance on the PSAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test. Semifinalists are among the highest scoring entrants in each state. About half of the 16,000 semifinalists are chosen to receive Merit Scholarship awards.

Four Deering students - David Barber-Callaghan, Emma Dunham, Alexandra Gribizis and Hajara Shareef- have been named commended students through the National Merit program. Commended students placed among the top 5 percent of more than 1.4 million students who entered the 2008 competition.