(Credit: Wissahickon School District / Facebook)
Call it “Whiz-ahickon High School” from now on.
Seven Wissahickon high schoolers were named National Merit finalists, the school district announced on its Facebook page last week.
Students Nathan Antonio, Ava Luu, Kevin Lobo, Olivia Seo, Tiffany Liu, Anoosha Shukla, and Ashley Park have an opportunity to win one of more than 7,000 National Merit Scholarships being offered by the National Merit Scholarship Program, according to the post.
The seven savants were part of the 15,000 students nationwide who got the honor, per the NMSP website. All in all, there were 1.5 million eligible students to become finalists.
To become a finalist or a semifinalist, according to the website, students must fulfill several requirements, including having a very high and consistent academic record, writing an essay, receiving a school official endorsement, and finally taking the SAT or ACT and clinching a score that confirms performance in the program.
According to its website, 16,000 semifinalists were notified in September 2023 and released to the media. Next, those semifinalists were tasked with submitting applications electronically and planning on reporting SAT/ACT scores, per the website. Then, come January through February, 15,000 semifinalists advanced to the Finalist standing.
Finally, in March, according to the NMSP website, 2,500 National Merit winners will be notified of their $2,500 scholarships. Furthermore, 840 corporate-sponsored Merit Scholarship winners will be announced, followed by 3,800 college-sponsored Merit Scholarship winners announced in June.
High schoolers had to qualify for the program by taking the Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test and meet participation requirements
“Of the 1.3 million eligible students who take the PSAT/NMSQT, only about 50,000 of the highest scoring students will receive program recognition,” states the National Merit Scholarship website.
According to the competition website, the NMSP was initiated in 1955 by the nonprofit organization National Merit Scholarship Corporation. Per the website, most of the scholarships will be underwritten by NMSC with its own funds. However, there are 320 other corporate organizations and higher education institutions that support the scholarships.
The seven Wissahickon whizzes will each get certificates of merit mailed to the high school. From there, the section of Merit Scholar awardees begins in February, per the website.
