13 North Penn Students Named National Merit Semifinalists

LANSDALE, PA — North Penn High School students are once again making the area proud. A total of 13 seniors have been named National Merit Scholarship Semifinalists, the Scholarship Corporation recently announced.

More than 1.6 million students around the country entered the competition by taking the PSAT or the National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test. They're competing for 7,500 different scholarships, worth $31 million all told.

North Penn semifinalists include the following students:

• Pushti Desai
• John Grattan
• Evan Jones
• Brigit Joseph
• Paul Klemmer
• Haiming Lu
• Charis Ma
• Manav Patel
• Alexandra Sidach
• Yashita Thota
• Angela Wu
• Allison Yang
• Denalia Zhi

Semifinalists must have an outstanding high school academic record, meet SAT score requirements, submit an essay and get a recommendation from a high school official. To advance to the finalist stage, semifinalists and his or her high school must submit an application detailing the academic record, participation in school and community activities, demonstrated leadership, employment and honors received. Scholars are chosen based on their skills, accomplishments and potential for success in college.

More than 90 percent of semifinalists will become finalists, and about half of these will end up with scholarships.

There are three types of National Merit Scholarships available: 2,500 scholarships sponsored by the National Merit Scholarship Corporation itself, 1,000 corporate-sponsored scholarships, and an expected 4,000 college-sponsored scholarships.

Winners will be announced from April through July 2019.

Image via North Penn School District