29 More Hudson Valley Students Win National Merit Scholarships

HUDSON VALLEY, NY — Twenty-nine Hudson Valley students are among 3,300 third round winners of the National Merit Scholarships for 2020. The National Merit Scholarship Corporation announced the list of scholars on Wednesday.

The finalists in this round will receive $500 and $2,000 annually for up to four years of undergraduate study at the institution financing the scholarship.

On April 22, more than 1,000 recipients of corporate-sponsored Merit Scholarship awards were named, including eight from Rockland and Westchester counties. In May, the National Merit $2,500 Scholarship winners were announced, and the list included 35 students from the region. SEE:

• 35 Hudson Valley Seniors Win 2020 National Merit Scholarships
• 8 HV Students Win 2020 Corporate-Sponsored Merit Scholarships

On July 13, some 4,100 college-sponsored Merit Scholarship winners will be announced, bringing the total number of college-sponsored Merit Scholarship recipients in the 2020 competition to about 4,100.

The merit scholarship winners announced this week were among a group of about 7,600 high school seniors who will receive National Merit Scholarships for college undergraduate study worth over $30 million.

The Hudson Valley students who received this honor include:

• Callie B. Hoffman of Bedford, Byram Hills High School
• Joshua B. Jacobs, Briarcliff High School
• Charlotte Templeton of Chappaqua, Horace Greeley High School
• Gil Halevi of Elmsford, Briarcliff High School
• Anya Malhotra, Goshen High School
• Josephine Robb, Harrison High School
• Philip R. Kelso of Highland, New Paltz Central High School
• Ethan A. Karas of Katonah, Fox Lane High School
• Alexander J. Astorina of Larchmont, Mamaroneck High School
• Vincent J. Vitanza, Mahopac High School
• Kaitlin Spiridellis, Mamaroneck High School
• Grace B. West of Mamaroneck, Rye Neck High School
• Scott E. Fleischmann of Montebello, Suffern High School
• Makenzie R. Boylan of Mount Kisco, Fox Lane High School
• Riley M. Damiano of Patterson, Wooster School
• Luke D. Byman, Pearl River High School
• James V. McAllister, Pearl River High School
• Sabah H. Choudhur of Poughkeepsie, Spackenkill High School
• Nicole Jonassen, Rye High School
• Hahnbie A. Kim, Rye High School
• Noel H. McGrory of Rye, Regis High School
• Carter G. Moyer of Rye, The Hotchkiss School
• Nicole T. Peters, Saugerties High School
• Craig G. Carroll, Scarsdale High School
• Martina R. Freed of Scarsdale, New Rochelle High School
• Alan J. Hu of Scarsdale, Edgemont High School
• Charlotte S. Kelson, Scarsdale High School
• Olga Lew-Kiedrowska of Scarsdale, Edgemont High School
• Luka F. Masic, Scarsdale High School

More than 1.5 million juniors in roughly 21,000 high schools entered the 2020 National Merit Scholarship Program when they took the 2018 Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test (PSAT/NMSQT), which served as an initial screen of program entrants.

The last fall, 16,000 semifinalists were named on a state-representational basis in numbers proportional to each state’s percentage of the national total of graduating high school seniors. semifinalists were the highest-scoring program entrants in each state and represented less than one percent of the nation’s seniors.

To compete for Merit Scholarship awards, semifinalists first had to advance to the finalist level of the competition by fulfilling additional requirements. Each semifinalist was asked to submit a detailed scholarship application, which included writing an essay and providing information about extracurricular activities, awards, and leadership positions. Semifinalists also had to have an outstanding academic record, be endorsed and recommended by a high school official, and earn SAT or ACT scores that confirmed the qualifying test performance.