26 SF Students Semifinalists For 2022 National Merit Scholarships

SAN FRANCISCO, CA — The 2022 National Merit Scholarship Program semifinalists were announced on Wednesday, including 26 students from San Francisco.

The local students and their high schools are:

Convent of the Sacred Heart High School

• Pollak-Hurst, Sophia P.

Stuart Hall High School

• Burns, William J.

International High School

• Ortiz De Montellano, Felix

Lick-Wilmerding High School

• Fein, Felix J.
• Gibson, Matthew J.
• Harris, Ivan K.
• Mader, Alexander A.
• Shlipak, Kyan K.

Lowell High School

• Lee, Albertina
• Shi, Albert
• Sterling, Ella M.
• Yuan, Jiaming

Lycee Francais

• Kasriel, Timothe
• Marami, Hirad

Proof School

• Zitzewitz, Zachary W.
• Zitzewitz, Zoe M.

Sacred Heart Cathedral Preparatory

• Gursky, Colin Z.

San Francisco University High School

• Cuthbert, Danielle A.
• Garcia, Sophie
• Holden, Katherine H.
• Hsu, Matthew

St. Ignatius College Preparatory School

• Brinkerhoff, Anika
• Debenedetti, Thomas A.
• Feeley, Sonali E.
• Tam, Ethan
• Yoshii, Ashley A.

These students are among some 16,000 national semifinalists in the 67th annual National Merit Scholarship Program.

They will compete for some 7,500 National Merit Scholarships worth nearly $30 million. The scholarships will be awarded next spring and summer.

The semifinalists where chosen after they took the 2020 Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test, which served as an initial screen of program entrants.

The semifinalists represent less than one percent of U.S. high school seniors.

The number of semifinalists in each state is proportional to the state’s percentage of the national total of graduating seniors.

Next, semifinalists and a high school official must submit a detailed scholarship application, incuding academic record, participation in school and community activities, demonstrated leadership abilities, employment, and honors and awards received.

The semifinalists must also write an essay, and earn SAT or ACT scores that confirm the student’s earlier performance on the qualifying test.

Finalists will be announced in February. All National Merit Scholarship winners will be selected from this group.

There are three types of 2022 National Merit Scholarships:

• 2,500 National Merit $2500 Scholarships that will be awarded on a state-representational basis.
• 1,000 corporate-sponsored Merit Scholarship awards will be provided by approximately 220 corporations and business organizations.
• 180 colleges and universities are expected to finance some 4,000 college-sponsored Merit Scholarship awards for Finalists who will attend the sponsor institution.