Convent of the Visitation Student Named National Achievement Scholarship Semifinalist

Editor's note: The following is based on a press release from the National Achievement Scholarship Program.

Olivia Bennett, a senior at Convent of the Visitation, was named a semifinalist in the National Achievement Scholarship Program, which recognizes Black American high school seniors. Achievement semifinalists are eligible to compete for the approximately 800 achievement scholarship awards—totaling more than $2.5 million—which will also be awarded next spring.

Earlier this month three local students were named National Merit Semifinalists

Students are selected as National Merit and Achievement semifinalists based on their scores on the PSAT, which they take as juniors. Approximately 1.5 million students in nearly 22,000 U.S. high schools took the test last year.

The 15 merit semifinalists and one achievement semifinalist from District 196 will now submit additional information in order to be considered for selection as a finalist. Approximately 90 percent of semifinalists will be named finalists in spring 2013 and will be eligible to receive scholarships that are awarded by businesses, colleges and universities, and the National Merit Scholarship Corporation.

The National Merit Scholarship Program also recognizes students whose scores on the PSAT/NMSQT rank them in the top 5 percent of students nationwide. In District 196, the following 34 seniors are 2012-13 National Merit commended students:

From the about 1,600 Semifinalists for the National Achievement Program, about 1,300 are expected to advance to the Finalist level and in January they will be notified of this designation.

Every Finalist will compete for one of the 700 one-time National Achievement $2500 Scholarships, which will be awarded on a regional representation basis. In addition, corporate and business sponsors will underwrite about 100 Achievement Scholarship awards for Finalists who meet criteria set by the grantor.