12 Highland Park Students Named National Merit Semifinalists

HIGHLAND PARK, IL — A dozen members of the Highland Park High School class of 2019 were named as National Merit Scholarship semifinals Wednesday. The National Merit Scholarship Corporation announced the 12 Highland Park students were picked as part of this year's scholarship competition as a result of their test scores on preliminary SATs they took as juniors last year.

Students who made the cut had some of the top scores in Illinois on the test, and less than 1 percent of high school students qualified to become one of 16,000 semifinalists, according to National Merit. Over the course of the 2019 competition, the corporation will award 7,500 National Merit Scholarships worth more than $31 million combined.

The next step is narrowing down the pool of semifinalists to finalists, with about 15,000 semifinalists expected to advance to the next level after submitting an application with information about academic and community activities, employment, awards and "demonstrated leadership abilities," National Merit said.

Scholarships winners will be selected from the group of finalists based on their accomplishments, skills and potential for success in college, according to National Merit, which plans to announce Merit Scholars for the class of 2019 between April and July 2019.

Here are this year's National Merit Semifinalists from Highland Park High School:

• Natalie Abreu
  
• Samuel Dincin
• Matthew B. Doherty
• Chana Gandelsman
• Jacob Hersh
• Adam Kalman
• Natalie Laky
• Jordan Mazza
• Madalyn Murphy
• Samuel Pinsky
• Jacob Reisner
• Elliot Starkman

Last year, nine HPHS students were named as semifinalists. Of those, four were awarded $2,500 scholarships to the institution of their choice and one was awarded a scholarship sponsored by Northwestern University.

The National Merit Scholarship Corporation is an Evanston-based nonprofit founded in 1955. A majority of the $31 million in scholarships it distributed last year was underwritten by sponsors, including about 178 colleges and 232 corporations.

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