12 Union County Seniors Are National Merit Semi-Finalists

CLARK, NJ — 12 seniors at Union County schools have been named semi-finalists for the 2021 National Merit Scholarship Program.

The semi-finalists were announced on Sept. 9 and include approximately 16,000 high-school seniors that will go on to compete for the scholarships that will be offered next spring. According to a press release from the National Merit Scholarship Program, over 90 percent of the semi-finalists will be named as finalists for the scholarship. Of those finalists, about half will win a scholarship.

More than 1.5 million students applied for the highly competitive scholarship and the semi-finalists represent less than 1 percent of all high-school seniors in the U.S. For each state, the number of semi-finalists is proportional to that state's percentage of the total graduating seniors in the country.

Here are the Union County semi-finalists for the scholarship:

ACADEMY FOR ALLIED HEALTH SCIENCES

• Isabella An
• Sonia Kulkarni

ACADEMY FOR INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY

• Chirag Furia
• Alex Keri
• Meredith Rosenthal

UNION COUNTY MAGNET HIGH SCHOOL

• Ryan Chang
• Daniela Jayinski
• Dylan McCann
• Karen Menezes
• Jason Qiu
• Caroline E. Zhao

UNION COUNTY VOCATIONAL - TECHNICAL HIGH SCHOOL

• Pranav Muralikrishnan

To become a finalist, the program explains that students and a high-school official must submit a detailed application. The application must contain information about a student's academic record, leadership abilities, the honors and awards they've received and more.

National Merit Scholarship winners of 2021 will be announced in four nationwide news
releases beginning in April and concluding in July.

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