Three Owen J. Roberts (OJR) High School seniors were named by the National Merit Scholarship Corporation as semifinalists in the 68th annual National Merit Scholarship Program. All semifinalists are eligible to compete for more than 7,200 National Merit Scholarship awards worth nearly $28 million, to be awarded in spring 2023. The program honors students who meet exceptional academic ability standards and other requirements including a recommendation from a high school official.
OJR’s three National Merit Scholarship semifinalists are:
· Maxwell Dulay – Is proud to be a second generation National Merit Semifinalist, as his mom was a previous recipient of the distinction. Maxwell intends to focus on data science as he pursues a bachelor’s degree and possibly a master’s degree from a four-year university.
· Sarah Ewing – Plans to pursue a Bachelor of Science in Agricultural Sciences, and then move onto Law School so she can practice environmental law. Sarah credits her mom’s upbringing on a dairy farm in Wisconsin and her Advanced Placement science courses at OJR High School as inspirations for intended area of study.
· Vaishnavi Komera – Loves analyzing information and is considering math and psychology as her areas of study after graduating from high school and attending a four-year university. Vaishnavi credits her teachers at OJR High School as influences for shaping her interest in math.
To enter the 2023 National Merit Scholarship Program, students must complete the Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test (PSAT/NMSQT®) during their junior year, 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. In addition, semifinalists must maintain 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.
To compete for National Merit Scholarships, semifinalists must advance to the finalist level of the competition by fulfilling several additional requirements – including the submission of a detailed scholarship application, in which the student and a school official provides information about the semifinalist’s academic record, participation in school and community activities, demonstrated leadership abilities, employment, as well as honors and awards received. A Semifinalist can become a finalist and compete for a Merit Scholarship award in only one program year.
Three types of National Merit Scholarships will be offered in the spring of 2023. Every Finalist will compete for one of 2,500 National Merit $2,500 Scholarships that will be awarded on a state-representational basis. In addition, more than 900 corporate-sponsored Merit Scholarship awards will be provided by approximately 180 corporations and business organizations for Finalists who meet their specified criteria, and more than 150 colleges and universities are expected to finance some 3,800 college-sponsored Merit Scholarship awards for Finalists who will attend the sponsor institution.
National Merit Scholarship winners will be announced in four stages taking place from April through July 2023. These scholarship recipients will join nearly 368,000 other distinguished young people who have earned the Merit Scholar title.
