Five CHS seniors named National Merit Semifinalists
Special to The Clinton Courier
Pictured (clockwise from lower left) are Timothy Leach, Benjamin Gibson, Musa Blake, Benjamin Parks and Nadia Wilson.
Five seniors at Clinton High School have been named as National Merit Semifinalists in the 69th National Merit Scholarship Program.
CHS seniors Musa Blake, Benjamin Gibson, Timothy Leach, Benjamin Parks and Nadia Wilson are among the one percent (just over 16,000) of high school students across the country to be recognized as National Merit Semifinalists. Over 1.3 million juniors in about 21,000 high schools entered the 2024 National Merit Scholarship Program by taking the 2022 Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test (PSAT/NMSQT®), which served as an initial screen of program entrants. The nationwide pool of Semifinalists, representing less than one percent of U.S. high school seniors, includes the highest scoring entrants in each state. The number of Semifinalists in a state is proportional to the state’s percentage of the national total of graduating seniors.
These academically talented high school seniors have an opportunity to continue in the competition for some 7,140 National Merit Scholarships worth nearly $28 million that will be offered next spring.
To be considered for a National Merit Scholarship award, Semifinalists must fulfill several requirements to advance to the Finalist level of the competition, including submitting a detailed scholarship application that provides information about their academic record, participation in school and community activities, demonstrated leadership abilities, employment and honors and awards received. A Semifinalist must have an outstanding academic record throughout high school, be endorsed and recommended by a high school official, write an essay, and earn SAT or ACT scores that confirm the student’s earlier performance on the qualifying test.
From over 16,000 Semifinalists, more than 15,000 are expected to advance to the Finalist level, and they will be notified of this designation next February. All National Merit Scholarship winners will be selected from this group of Finalists. More than half of the Finalists will win a National Merit Scholarship, earning the Merit Scholar title.
