National Merit Scholarship Finalists Named In District 219

NILES, IL — Niles Township High School District 219 has seen five of its students named as finalists in the National Merit Scholarship Program.

The finalists are:

• Osama Esmail (Niles West)
• Cameron Benesch (Niles North)
• Thao-Vien T. Bui (Niles North)
• Jiedong Duan (Niles North)
• Joshua G. Montgomery-Patt (Niles North)
• Nathaniel Louis Schetter (Niles North)

About half of the 15,000 finalists nationwide will be awarded one of the 7,500 National Merit Scholarships worth about $33 million and earn the title of Merit Scholar between now and June.

The path to becoming a Finalist began in junior year when the students, along with about 1.6 million others in more than 22,000 high schools, took the PSAT. The highest scoring students became semifinalists. That group has been further narrowed to the list of finalists announced this week.