Livermore Seniors Named National Merit Scholar Semifinalists

From Livermore Schools: Among approximately 16,000 nationwide Semifinalists for the National Merit Scholarships were five students representing the Livermore Valley Joint Unified School District. Semifinalists were announced last week for the 63rd annual academic competition put on by the Evanston, IL-based National Merit Scholarship Corporation (NMSC.)

Emory Larson, Meenakshi Singhal, and Kaitlyn Wang, of Granada High School; and Miriam Brown and Piper Cooke, of Livermore High School, were all named Semifinalists for the 2018 National Merit Scholarship Program’s awards. The NMSC will select its winners from a group of Finalists based on various criteria including academic record, Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test (PSAT/NMSQT) and SAT scores, recommendations, extracurricular accomplishments, and an essay.

These Semifinalists were selected out of a pool of about 1.6 million juniors across the country who took the 2016 PSAT/NMSQT last October, based on the test’s Selection Index scores. To advance, seniors must complete an application and take their SATs by December this year. In February 2018, roughly 90 percent of Semifinalists will be announced as Finalists, and half of those Finalists will be selected as winners of a Merit Scholarship award.

Kelly Bowers, Ed.D., Superintendent of Schools, a National Merit Semifinalist herself in high school, celebrated the District’s outstanding students. “We are so proud of our seniors for this recognition as nationally ranked scholars,” she said. “This is a tremendous achievement for them individually and for our schools.”

Image Courtesy of Livermore Schools