Eight Bellevue-area students have won $2,500 National Merit scholarships.

They were chosen from a talent pool of approximately 15,000 finalists by a committee of college admissions officers and high school counselors. They may use their scholarships at any regionally accredited U.S. college or university. Winner include:

Evan A. Boyle, Bellevue High School, probable career field: computer science; Stephen L. Jacobson, Issaquah High School, provable career field: engineering;

Rachel L. Jiang, Newport High School, probable field: economics/international relations; Farrah Khan, Newport High School, probable career field: medicine/health science; Peter H. Tseng, Issaquah High School, probable career field: software engineering; Madeline Y. Wong, Lakeside School, Seattle, probable career field: chemistry; Jinhua Xu, Newport High School, probable career field: engineering; and Danning Zhao, Newport High School, probable career field: bioengineering.