Schools
Academy for Science and Design Recognizes Student Scholars
Five students named semifinalists and two students receive letters of commendation from the National Merit Scholarship Program
Director, Jennifer Cava, of the Academy for Science and Design recently announced that seniors Samantha Laflotte, Christopher Stemporzewski, Daniel Ryckman, Vidya Nandakumar, and Preston Dyess are National Semifinalists in the 2024 National Merit Scholarship Program. In addition, she presented two letters of commendation to Pranay Gohel and Angelina Koudriashova. Director Cava stated, "I am immensely proud of these scholars. Their dedication, perseverance, and passion for learning are remarkable, and I look forward to hearing about their incredible accomplishments in the future."
Over 1.3 million juniors in about 21,000 high schools entered the 2024 National Merit
Scholarship Program by taking the 2022 Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying
Test (PSAT/NMSQT®), which served as an initial screen of program entrants. The nationwide pool of Semifinalists, representing less than one percent of U.S. high school seniors. About 34,000 Commended Students throughout the nation are being recognized for their exceptional academic promise.
From over 16,000 Semifinalists, more than 15,000 are expected to advance to the Finalist
level, and in February they will be notified of this designation. All National Merit Scholarship
winners will be selected from this group of Finalists.
