Six Johnston Seniors Named National Merit Semifinalists

While it's not a surprise that Johnston High School is home to bright students, the school now proudly boasts six National Merit Scholarship Program semifinalists.

Josh Boeschen, Austin Busch, Jeff Carley, Mark Gee, Katherine Giles, and Vivian Wu now have the opportunity to continue in the competition for about 8,300 National Merit Scholarships worth more than $32 million, to be offered next spring.

In order to be considered the semifinalists must meet several requirements to move to the finalist level of the competition. About 15,000 semifinalists are expected to attain finalist standing in February 2013, and more than half of the finalists will win a National Merit Scholarship, earning the Merit Scholar title.

The teens qualified to be National Merit Scholarship semifinalists by taking the 2011 Preliminary SAT (PSAT).

From April to July 2013, the National Merit Scholarship winners of 2013 will be announced. The scholars will join more than 291,000 other distinguished young people who have earned the Merit Scholar title.