Alachua County School District has record number of National Merit semifinalists
A record number of Alachua County Public Schools students have been named semifinalists in the prestigious 2023 National Merit Scholarship program.
The National Merit Scholarship Corp. recently released the list of semifinalists in the program. It includes a record 45 Alachua County Public Schools students, up from 41 recognized in last year’s program.
“We’re very proud that so many of our students have been recognized this year,” said Superintendent Shane Andrew in a news release. “It’s a tribute to their hard work and commitment to academic achievement, and to the support of their teachers and families.”
Semifinalists represent less than 1% of high school seniors in the nation.
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To qualify, students must earn among the nation’s highest scores on the Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test (PSAT/NMSQT). About 1.5 million students take the exam each year and about 16,000 are named semifinalists.
Students hoping to advance as finalists must earn a score on the SAT, submit an application highlighting their other academic achievements, awards and honors earned, leadership activities, teacher recommendations and an essay.
Buchholz High School has 26 semifinalists in this year’s program, Eastside High has 11 and Gainesville High has eight.
Students will learn in early spring 2023 if they have reached finalist status. Finalists are eligible for thousands of dollars in scholarships provided by businesses, colleges and universities and other organizations.
National Merit Scholarship semifinalists
Buchholz High School: Himal Bamzai-Wokhlu, Avery Bernstein, Hannah Ciupe, Samuel Cohen, Nicholas Dang, Rishi Gadikota, Angela Gao, Tyler Holland, Nia Jobson, Ahan Mishra, Andrey Nikitin, Aditya Vardhan Pasumarti, Abhinav Pothuri, Nicole Qian, McKayla Ro, Maximilian Schentrup, Tucker Shea, Anwyn Tanner, Isabelle Tseng, Zachary Urbine, Sophia Vernon, Zach Xiao, William Xu, Carolynn Zhao, Jonathan Zheng, Kevin Zheng
Eastside High School: Maryanne Armstrong, Rebekah George, Jakob Gorham, Claire Kuntz, Elizabeth Matthias, Linda Mentz, Maya O'Dell, Hirbod Sargeran, Maui Schwartz, Maggie Yan, Benjamin Zou
Gainesville High School: Harold Bishop, Jacob Calloway, Cormac Davis, Michelle Han, Nicholas Hirsch, Siya Patel, Jake Qiu, Charles Ye
This article originally appeared on The Gainesville Sun: Alachua County students semifinalists in National Merit program
