On Wednesday, September 16th, officials of the National Merit Scholarship Corporation (NMSC) named four high school students from Traverse City Area Public Schools as Semifinalists in the 55th Annual National Merit Scholarship Program. The following TCAPS students will have an opportunity to continue in the competition along with the nearly 16,000 students named nation-wide as Semi-Finalists for approximately 8,200 National Merit Scholarships, worth more than 36 million dollars, which will be offered next spring:
TC Central High School TC West Senior High School
Jamie Endicott Marc Boissoneau
Aria Jelinek
Levi Roth
More than 1.5 million juniors in over 21,000 high schools entered the 2010 National Merit Program by taking the 2008 Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test (PSAT/NMSQT), which served as an initial screen of program entrants. The nationwide pool of Semifinalists, which represents less than one percent of U.S. high school seniors, includes the highest scoring entrants in each state. The number of Semifinalist in a state is proportional to the state’s percentage of the national total of graduation seniors.
To become a Finalist, a Semifinalist must have an outstanding academic record throughout high school, be endorsed and recommended by the high school principal, and earn SAT scores that confirm the students’ earlier performance on the qualifying test. The Semifinalist and high school official must submit a detailed scholarship application, which includes the student’s self-descriptive essay and information about the Semifinalist’s participation and leadership in school and community activities.
Approximately 15,000 Semifinalists are expected to advance to the Finalist level and it is from this group that all National Merit Scholarship winners will be chosen. Merit Scholar designees are selected on the basis of their skill, accomplishments, and potential for success in rigorous college studies, without regard to gender, race, ethnic origin, or religious preference.
National Merit Scholarship winners of 2010 will be announced in four nationwide news releases beginning in April concluding in July. These scholarship recipients will join more than 267,000 other distinguished young people who have earned the Merit Scholar title.
Please contact Tracy Carra at TC Central High School at 933-8698 or Krista Gusler at TC West Senior High School at 933-7501 for more information. To learn more about the National Merit Scholarship Program, visit the NMSC Web site at www.nationalmerit.org.