All 16 District 196 Seniors Named National Merit Scholarship Finalists

Press release from Independent School District 196:

April 3, 2020

All 16 District 196 seniors who were selected semifinalists in the 2019-20 National Merit Scholarship Program last fall have been named finalists and are eligible for the approximately 7,600 merit scholarships totaling more than $31 million that will be awarded this spring.

The National Merit finalists from District 196 are Christina Monsen of Apple Valley High School; Luke Anderson, Jake Berran and Joseph Rollie of Eagan High School; Sanat Iyer, Ian Kenney, Benjamin Kupinski, Jiayang Tang, Rohan Vij and Margaret Wang of Eastview High School, and Cecilia Ellis, Regan Hansen, Charlie Huang, Tanner Morrison, Ryan Niedenthal and Akash Shiri of Rosemount High School.

Post-secondary scholarships are awarded by the National Merit Scholarship Corporation, businesses and colleges and universities nationwide.

Students are selected for the National Merit and Achievement programs each fall based on their scores on the Preliminary Scholastic Aptitude Test/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test (PSAT/NMSQT), which they take as juniors. Approximately 1.5 million students at 21,000 U.S. high schools took the qualifying test last school year. Students who score in the top 1 percent of students nationwide are selected as semifinalists and can then submit additional information to be considered as a finalist. Students who score in the top 5 percent of students nationally are named commended students; 26 District 196 students earned commended status last fall.

This press release was produced by Independent School District 196. The views expressed here are the author’s own.