11 Five Towns Students Named National Merit Semifinalists

Students from all over Long Island, including 11 from the Five Towns, were named Semifinalists in the National Merit Scholarship Program.

All of the 16,000 semifinalists are high school seniors chosen from schools across the country and are competing for $31 million worth of scholarships. Of the semifinalists, 15,000 will go on to be finalists and earn a scholarship, with some going even further.

More than 1.6 million students around the country entered the competition by taking the PSAT or the National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test. The semifinalists include John Chen of Lawrence High School in Cedarhurst; Samuel Bogdanov, Bharvi M. Chavre, Julia Grossman and Brandon M. Weiss of George W. Hewlett High School in Heweltt; Aliza Mandelbaum of Stella K. Abraham High School in Heweltt-Bay Park; Joseph Goldblatt and Benjamin Wiener of Rambam Mesivta High School in Lawrence; and Yehuda Brown, Avi Radinsky and Jacob Weissman of Davis Renov Stahler Yeshiva for Boys in Woodmere.

In order to become a finalist, the students must submit a detailed application which includes information about their academic record, participation in school and community activities, demonstrated leadership abilities, employment, and honors and awards received. A semifinalist must have an outstanding academic record through-out high school, be endorsed and recommended by a high school official, write an essay, and earn SAT scores that confirm the student’s earlier performance on the qualifying test.

Photo: Patch