Five Irvington HS Seniors Named National Merit Scholarship Semifinalists

IRVINGTON, NY — Five Irvington High School seniors — Max Kerner, Ryan Meng-Killeen, Zoe Mermelstein, Clara Montgomery and Evan Pickar — were named semifinalists in the 2017 National Merit Scholarship Program.

The students, chosen for academic talent, are among 16,000 high school students nationwide who were awarded the distinction by the National Merit Scholarship Corporation. They represent the top 1 percent of students from across the country with the highest scores on the qualifying Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test, according to a district spokesman.

Irvington’s semifinalists took the qualifying test in 2015 along with 1.6 million other juniors from more than 22,000 high schools, and are in the running for approximately 7,500 scholarships worth more than $33 million that will be offered next spring.

An additional 10 Irvington seniors were recognized by the NMSC as Commended Students for their performance on the qualifying test, ranking among 34,000 others nationwide who were awarded this designation, district officials said.

They are Stephanie Ades, Dorian Barber, Bradley Goldsmith, Remy Mermelstein, Scott Mitchell, Dillon Palmieri, Jordan Schwed, Gabriel Siegel, Kieran Sullivan and Max Ziluck.

"Being recognized by the National Merit Scholarship Corporation is an incredible honor and demonstrates tremendous dedication by so many IHS seniors,” said Principal David Cohen. “We are very impressed by their accomplishments.”

National Merit Scholarship finalists will be announced in February, while scholarship winners will be announced in the spring.

Photo caption: From left, Evan Pickar, Clara Montgomery, Ryan Meng-Killeen, Zoe Mermelstein and Max Kerner. Photo credit: Irvington Union Free School District.