Katie Davidson of Kennedy Catholic High School, Hermitage, and Ed Likovich of Hickory High School, Hermitage, made it to the finals after they submitted essays to the National Merit Scholarship Corp. about their plans for the future.

Katie, of Hermitage, said she plans to attend the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia and major in mathematics, though she said her major could change.

Ed said he has been accepted to Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore; the University of Rochester (N.Y.); Princeton (N.J.) University; Harvard University in Cambridge, Mass.; and Cornell University in Ithica, N.Y. He said he is waiting to hear from Pennsylvania State University and University of Notre Dame in South Bend, Ind. He said he is thinking about majoring in science and possibly government.

The president of the National Honor Society at Kennedy, Katie also is on the tennis team, plays flute in the band, is student choir director and belongs to the service organization Action Club.

Ed participated in varsity cross country, basketball and track and field. He works for the school newspaper and is a student columnist for The Vindicator of Youngstown. He belongs to various academic clubs, chorus, Students for Charity and plays piano. Ed has also received many academic awards.

Both are members of Shenango Valley Chamber of Commerce's Junior Leadership Shenango.

Ed said he is also active at Church of Notre Dame, Hermitage; volunteers at Sharon Regional Health System's Heart Institute; and has done other community service activities involving Prince of Peace Center in Farrell, Buhl Farm in Hermitage, the American Heart Association, Special Olympics and John XXIII Home and Whispering Oaks, both in Hermitage.

"It's a nice thing to recognize academic honors," Katie said of the National Merit awards.

More than 1.2 million students in more than 20,000 high schools entered the 2002 program when they were juniors by taking the Preliminary Scholastic Aptitute Test. Of 16,000 semi-finalists, the finalists were chosen to compete for 8,000 merit scholarships, according to a news release.

A spokeswoman said winners will be announced in the next few weeks.