55 Washington DC Students Named National Merit Semifinalists

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Students from 12 DC high schools, including homeschool students, were named National Merit semifinalists in the 2019 competition, the National Merit Scholarship Corporation said Thursday.

Finalists are determined by students' scores on the Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test (NMSQT).

Some 1.6 million students enter the competition each year, with an estimated 50,000 qualifying for recognition in the National Merit Scholarship Program. Commended students receive letters of commendation and become eligible for scholarships sponsored by corporations and businesses.

Semifinalists, meanwhile, are designated by state and given scholarship application materials. To be considered for a National Merit Scholarship, semifinalists must advance to Finalist standing by meeting high academic standards and other requirements.

In February, around 15,000 finalists will be notified that they have advanced to finalist standing. Winners are chosen from this pool based on abilities, skills and accomplishments. Scholarship winners are awarded a variety of financial aid ranging from a $2,500 payout to corporate and college-sponsored scholarships.

(For more news and information like this, subscribe to the D.C. Patch for free. If you have an iPhone, click here to get the free Patch iPhone app; download the free Patch Android app here. Don't forget to like us on Facebook!)

A total of 55 DC students qualified as semifinalists for the 2019 program. Here's how many students qualified per high school.

Basis School

• Soleh B. Anderlini
• Nikolaus A. Schandlbauer

Georgetown Day High School

• Eamon T. Abramson
• Tara S. Bhagat
• Alexander Calabrese
• Theodore S. Hockstader
• Emma C. Kay
• Patrick L. Keeley
• Michelle Kim
• William H. Klein
• Eliza R. Kravitz
• Theodor D. Schmidt
• Joyce E. Yang

Georgetown Visitation Preparatory School

• Cecilia D. Zubler

Gonzaga College High School

• Collin T. Dent
• Patricio G. Fraga-Errecart
• Edward F. O'Keefe
• Daniel J. Podratsky

Homeschool

• Alan Goldfarb

Market School

• Ian M. Berlin
• Abigail D. Burrows

National Cathedral School

• Katherine E. Klingler
• Nicole K. Owens
• Olivia M. Vella
• Maggie Wang

School Without Walls

• Max C. Berengaut
• Marco A. Darvish
• Eli Grosser
• Joseph A. Horwitz
• Jane A. Kelly
• Vincent I. Premysler
• Gabriel L. Stevanus

Sidwell Friends School

• Rachel H. Blatt
• Christopher Cheng
• Claire R. Choi
• Olivia A. Choi
• Zachary J. DeParle
• David J. Hacker
• Oliver S. Hutt-Sierra
• Mitchell M. Jubeir
• Harrison W. Kay
• Daphne K. Maniatis
• Arjun Rohlfing-Das
• Arjun Sethi-Olowin
• Alex Wang
• Sydney Yi

St. Albans School

• Liam N. Chalk
• Ian N. Chang
• Jonah N. Chang
• Dan V. Huynh
• Shiva Y. Khanna Yamamoto
• Robert S. Shekoyan
• Andrew G. Wu

St. Anslem's Abbey School

• Ryan P. Fennelly

Washington International School

• Ian Carpenter-Suhy

Image via Shutterstock