National Merit semifinalists include 18 local high school seniors, 9 from Fossil Ridge

Kelly Lyell, Fort Collins Coloradoan
·2 min read

Eighteen high school students from Fort Collins, including nine from Fossil Ridge, have been selected as semifinalists for 2023 National Merit Scholarships, organizers announced.

Those students were all among the top scorers in Colorado on the 2022 Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test, which is used for initial screening. The highest-scoring students in each state are selected as semifinalists, with each state’s representation proportional to its percentage of the national total of graduating seniors, officials said in a news release. Colorado had 307 semifinalists this year.

More than 1.3 million juniors in about 21,000 high schools took the PSAT. The semifinalists, scholarship officials said, represent less than 1% of the nation’s high school seniors.

These 18 students from Fort Collins schools are semifinalists

Here’s a list of the local semifinalists, by school, provided by the National Merit Scholarship Corporation:

  • Fort Collins – Flora E. Sanderson

  • Fossil Ridge – Logan T. Bowers, Jackson D. Dryg, Clara O. Drysdale, Natalie F. Lin, Colin N. Magelky, Paul Mick, Gavin A. Payne, Sarah E. Wheeler, Grace Zhao

  • Liberty Common – Cooper F. Beck, Julian T. Thompson-Cox, Patrick J. Wrona

  • Poudre – Quinn Blumenthal, Dylan W. Pallickara

  • Rocky Mountain – Joshua T. Pluta, Orion Rayburn

  • Homeschool – Abigail D. Anonson

What happens next for National Merit Scholarship semifinalists?

There are 16,000 semifinalists this year, and those semifinalists must work with an official at their individual schools to submit a detailed scholarship application that includes information about their academic record, participation in school and community activities, demonstrated leadership abilities, employment and honors and awards received, according to the news release.

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Those who successfully complete the application will be designated as finalists, from which Merit Scholar designees will be “selected on the basis of their skills, accomplishments and potential for success in rigorous college studies, without regard to gender, race, ethnic origin or religious preference,” the news release read.

They will then compete for roughly 7,140 National Merit Scholarships, worth nearly $28 million, to be awarded next spring.

What scholarships are available to designees?

Merit Scholar designees will be eligible for three types of National Merit Scholarships:

  • 2,500 scholarships of $2,500 awarded on a state-representational basis.

  • About 840 corporate-sponsored awards provided by approximately 160 businesses and organizations to finalists who meet their specified criteria, such as children of their employees or residents of communities where their plants or offices are located.

  • About 3,800 scholarships awarded by about 160 colleges and universities to finalists who will attend the sponsor institution.

High schools will be notified of their finalists in February, and winners will be announced in four news releases issued from April into July. Nearly 375,000 people have been named Merit Scholars since the program’s inception 69 years ago.

Reporter Kelly Lyell covers education, breaking news, some sports and other topics of interest for the Coloradoan. Contact him at kellylyell@coloradoan.com, twitter.com/KellyLyell or facebook.com/KellyLyell.news.

This article originally appeared on Fort Collins Coloradoan: 18 students from Fort Collins schools are National Merit semifinalists