Geneva High School Student Named National Merit Semifinalist

GENEVA, IL — Ten students at Geneva High School have been recognized by the National Merit Scholarship Program. Andrew Baggio was named a semifinalist, and nine others received commended rankings.

Baggio is among 16,000 semifinalists nationwide who qualified by achieving one of the state's highest scores on the 2020 Preliminary SAT, according to the National Merit Scholarship Corporation. To make it to the finalist round in February, semifinalists must submit an application with a recommendation from an official at their high school.

The pool of semifinalists reflects less than 1 percent of high school seniors in the U.S. and includes the highest-scoring students who enter from each state.

About 7,500 scholarships worth nearly $30 million will be awarded to finalists before the end of July 2022, according to the scholarship corporation, an Evanston-based nonprofit founded in 1955 to run the program. Students will find out beginning in April if they win.

Another roughly 34,000 students from across the country earned the "commended" title for "exceptional academic promise." At the District 304 high school, the following students made the list.

• Shreeya Buddaraju
• Sunni Foard
• Max Garibay-Deasy
• Emma Moore
• Andrew Perez
• Dylan Pratt
• Ansh Shah
• Spencer Sims
• Hannah Thill

Principal Tom Rogers will present the students with a letter of commendation from the school and National Merit Scholarship Corporation at an upcoming Board of Education meeting, officials said Tuesday.

"Those being named Commended Students have demonstrated outstanding potential for academic success," a spokesperson for NMSC said in a statement. "These students represent a valuable national resource; recognizing their accomplishments, as well as the key role their schools play in their academic development, is vital to the advancement of educational excellence in our nation. We hope that this recognition will help broaden their educational opportunities and encourage them as they continue their pursuit of academic success."

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