Huntington Juniors Qualify for National Merit Scholarship Program

Photo:

• Top: (l-r) Justin Meyer and Rachel Carpenter
• Bottom: (l-r) Olivia Stamatatos and Spencer Pashkin

Four Huntington High School students are among the select few students nationwide who qualified to enter the 2016 National Merit scholarship program, according to the Huntington Union Free School District.

Qualifying for the National Merit program is no easy task. All four students had to be in the top 50,000 out of 1.5 million participants. About 16,000 will then be named National Merit semi-finalists.

The Huntington High School juniors who were selected were Rachel Carpenter, Justin Meyer, Spencer Pashkin and Olivia Stamatatos

The students will find out in September if they made the semi-finals and they will then have an opportunity to continue in the competition to be named a National Merit finalist.

“These four young people have shined in the classroom and have taken advantage of countless opportunities offered throughout their years in Huntington,” Superintendent James W. Polansky said to the Huntington Union Free School District. “They are truly deserving of consideration for among the highest academic honors bestowed upon a high school student.”

Program finalists will start being notified next March if they have been selected to receive a financial scholarship award. Only about 8,000 students receive the honor, according to HUFSD.

Huntington seniors Charles Beers, Leah Butz, Justin Edgar-McNerney, Caitlin Knowles, Justin LoTurco, Suzanne Petryk and Joseph Saginaw all qualified for this year’s program.

Messrs, Beers, Saginaw and Knowles have been named National Merit finalists. Knowles and Saginaw are Huntington’s Class of 2015 valedictorian and salutatorian, respectively.

Images via Huntington Union Free School District

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