Bellevue High School senior, Katherine Long, has been named as a Presidential Scholars semifinalist.

The Presidential Scholars program, a U.S. Department of Education program, seeks to honor high school seniors across the nation who have proven themselves exceptional. Every year 141 students are selected as Presidential Scholars who meet the president and receive a medallion on an all-expense paid trip to Washington, D.C. Out of these students 20 are Presidential Scholars of the Arts, students who applied separately via the National Foundation for Advancement in the Arts’s Young Arts program.

Non-art nominees for the program are first drawn from 20 male and 20 female students with the highest SAT and ACT scores in a state (ties are included so the actual number of nominees may be higher). From these nominees, a group of semifinalists is decided, which in turn is narrowed down to a group of finalists from which the final Presidential Scholars are drawn.

Long was the only student from the city of Bellevue to advance to semifinalist status.

Results for Presidential Scholars finalists will be released in May. Names of the Presidential Scholars will be released in June.