By Brendan Hoover
Managing Editor

Mustang High School senior Lisa Kriegh was recently named a National Merit Scholarship finalist.

When asked about the honor last week, Kriegh used phrases that less intelligent people have a hard time buying.

“I like chemistry,” she said. “Calculus is fun.”

The honor is very exclusive. According to the National Merit Scholarship Corporation (NMSC), only about 8,200 students across the nation each year achieve finalist status.

Kriegh, 18, has racked up an extensive list of honors and accolades. She is an Oklahoma Academic All-Stater, an Oklahoma Academic Scholar and an AP Scholar with Honor.

She is also a MHS valedictorian, a Girls’ State delegate, a National Honor Society member and a two-year All-State Orchestra Bassoonist, just to name a few.

MHS Principal Angela Hunt said teachers and administrators could not ask for a better student than Kriegh.

“She sets the bar academically and is as gifted in music as she is with a chemistry book,” Hunt said. “Her teachers love her, not only because she’s gifted in the classroom but also because she is such a sweet person. She’s the perfect example of what’s right about teenagers today.”

Kriegh’s high school counselor, Christie Lorenz, wrote a letter to the NMSC officials supporting her application.

“Lisa loves to learn; thus she has chosen rigorous coursework and her success in that challenging coursework is, undeniably, most impressive by all standards,” Lorenz wrote.

Kriegh’s AP English Literature teacher, June Page, said that what truly makes Lisa so special is that “she is such a beautiful person.”

The finalists compete for one of three levels of National Merit Scholarships: a $2,500 scholarship, a corporate-sponsored Merit Scholarship award or a full-ride college-sponsored Merit Scholarship award.

Kriegh said she would find out what kind of award she will receive later this year.

To qualify as a finalist, students must have an outstanding academic record throughout high school, be endorsed and recommended by the high school principal, and earn SAT scores that confirm the student’s earlier performance on the PSAT qualifying test.

Mustang’s only National Merit finalist this year, Kriegh plans on attending Oklahoma State University in Stillwater this fall, possibly to major in chemical engineering.

Alex Weber-Kamin was Mustang’s last academic all-stater two years ago, and he was among four MHS students who were named National Merit finalists that year, according to Mustang Public Schools Communications Officer Shannon Rigsby.