Fourteen students at Naperville Central were announced as semifinalists in the 68th annual National Merit Scholarship program on Tuesday, Sept. 17.
The National Merit Scholarship Program is managed by the National Merit Scholarship Corporation (NMSC), which determines semifinalists by PSAT/NMSQT scores.. If selected as finalists, they will have the opportunity to receive scholarships in the spring.
“There are so many different ways to measure student achievement and success, this is one of the most public recognitions,” Principal Jackie Thornton said. “We’re proud to have the number of National Merit semifinalists that we do. In addition to that, I think it’s great that the College Board continues to expand their recognitions above and beyond national merit. To have so many students recognized for outstanding achievement in these categories is a testament to that achievement.”
Semifinalists at Central include seniors Anay Apte, Brian Dai, Zaid Hasan, Rohan Jha, Isaac Kalathiveetil, Helen Liang, Michael Liu, Shawn Plackiyil, Aryan Pradhan, Joseph Schnack, Iris Shadis-Greengas, William Wang, Arthur Xu and Qinyue Zhang.
“You get the opportunity to apply for finalist status, and then maybe eventually become some one of 7000 students that qualify for national merit and scholarship money,” Schnack said. “They kind of detailed the process there, we had an application [due] October 7 that’s an essay about yourself and you submit some personal information.”
Seniors who scored high on the PSAT/NMSQT and have a GPA above 3.3 may qualify for a variety of other awards offered by the corporation.
Charles Desmond-Ogugua, Arwa Hameed, Peighton Howell and Averi Velker won the National African-American Recognition Award. The National Hispanic Recognition Award was won by seniors Noralina Lara, Jocelyn Medina Llamas, Arianna Rivera, Hans Roeder and Lola Satre Morales. Lara Lagasca and Arianna Rivera were awarded the National Indigenous Recognition Award. Andrew Lazovski, Jocelyn Medina Llamas, Jay Patel, Alice Porfiropoulos and Yinuo Zhang each won the National First Generation Recognition Award.
“[National First Generation Recognition Award] is an award that College Board gives out,” Zhang said. “If your parents are first generation, if your parents then go to college in the U.S., you receive this award.”
Schnack was appreciative of the recognition.
“It was really cool, getting formal recognition,” Schnack said. “I got to shake Dan Bridges’ hand. That was a big honor for me.”
