School District Congratulates Syosset's 16 National Merit Semifinalists

Syosset Central School District recently congratulated the 16 Syosset High School seniors who have been named National Merit semifinalists.

These students were among approximately 16,000 high school students nationwide who were recognized by the National Merit Scholarship Corporation for the 2016 program.

“The Syosset High School community is extremely proud of our 2016 National Merit semifinalists,” Syosset High School Principal Dr. Giovanni Durante said in a press release. “I congratulate them on their hard work and wish them the best of luck in the next stage of the competition.”

Congratulations to:

• Demi C. Ajao
• Joshua R. Bassin
• Alyssa J. Chvasta
• Michael Collet
• Daniel Hirsch
• Allison Hung
• Rachel J. Kang
• William J. Long
• Andrea L. Ruggiero
• Brian Schultheis
• Benjamin D. Senzer
• Jourdan C. Smithwick
• Michael Yang
• Faisal Younus
• Ilya Yurchenko
• Alice Zhao

The semifinalists have qualified to compete for approximately 7,400 available National Merit scholarships worth more than $32 million.

Finalists will be announced in February 2016 and the winners will be named in the spring.

These 16 seniors were among more than 1.5 million juniors who took the Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test in 2014 and scored among the highest in the state and in the top 1 percent nationally.

Photo Caption: Syosset Superintendent of Schools Dr. Thomas Rogers (far left) and Syosset High School Principal Dr. Giovanni Durante (far right) congratulate the school’s 16 National Merit Semifinalists (from left) Allison Hung, Joshua Bassin, Alyssa Chvasta, Ilya Yurchenko, Rachel Kang, Brian Schultheis, Faisal Younus, Michael Collet, William Long, Michael Yang, Daniel Hirsch, Demi Ajao, Andrea Ruggiero, Benjamin Senzer, Alice Zhao and Jourdan Smithwick.

Photo courtesy of Northport-East Northport Schools