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Sarasota News Leader September 20, 2013 Page 79 GOODWILL TO HOST FREE SPANISH LANGUAGE WORKSHOP During the month of October, Goodwill Manasota will host a free, five-week-long workshop on conversational and practical Spanish as part of the nonprofit's Good Neighbor Program, Goodwill has announced. minican Republic, will teach the classes, a news release says. Each week, they will teach new vocabulary words "using a method designed to make the language easy for students to speak and comprehend," the release adds. Workshop classes, which are open to all members of the public, will be held every Tuesday, Oct. 1-29, from 6 to 7:30 p.m. at the Goodwill North Trail at Mecca Community Room, located at 5150 N. Tamiami Trail in Sarasota. The course will cover use of Spanish in meeting and greeting people, restaurant patronage and travel; it also will provide tips on how to improve communication with Spanish-speaking service providers and employees, the reRosa Payson, "a gifted, tri-lingual entrepre- lease notes. neur born and raised in Colombia," and Julissa Baez-Pavon, co-owner of a local Allstate To register for the course, call 355-2721, Ext. Insurance Co. office and a native of the Do- 163, or email GoodwillRSVP@gimi.org. FORTY COUNTY STUDENTS NAMED NATIONAL MERIT SEMIFINALISTS The National Merit Scholarship Corp. has announced that 40 students attending Sarasota County public high schools are among the approximately 16,000 semifinalists in the 59th annual National Merit Scholarship Program. arship Program by taking the 2012 Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test, which serves as an initial screening of program entrants, the release continues. The nationwide pool of semifinalists, which represents less than 1 percent of U.S. high school The semifinalists have an opportunity to conseniors, includes the highest-scoring entrants tinue in the competition for about 8,000 Nain each state. tional Merit Scholarships valued at about $35 million, a Sarasota County Schools news re- To become a finalist, a semifinalist must have lease points out. an outstanding academic record throughout high school, be endorsed and recommendTo advance to the finalist level for a Merit ed by the high school principal and earn SAT Scholarship, semifinalists must meet several scores that confirm the student's earlier perrequirements, the release says. About 15,000 formance on the qualifying test. The semifinalsemifinalists are expected to attain finalist ist and a high school official must submit a destanding; those who do will be notified in Febtailed scholarship application, which includes ruary 2014. More than half of those finalists an essay by the student and information about will win a National Merit Scholarship, earning his or her participation and leadership in the Merit Scholar title, the release adds. school and community activities, the release About 1.5 million juniors in some 22,000 high says. Merit Scholar designees are selected on schools entered the 2014 National Merit Schol- the basis of their skills, accomplishments and