13 West Chester HS Students Named National Merit Semifinalists

WEST CHESTER, PA — West Chester students are once again making the area proud. A total of 13 local 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.

Twelve of the seniors are from the West Chester School District, while one is from Pennsylvania Leadership Charter School. Semifinalists include:

Henderson

• Daniel Collinson
• Adam Fenandes
• Ryan McKie
• Ananya Muthukrishnan
• Bess Neiblum

East

• Margaux Fleming
• Sarah Guan
• Ayush Kashyap
• Brendan Merten
• Claire Mobed
• Abhijay Mudigonda
• Sanketh Raju

Pennsylvania Leadership Charter School

• Gaea S. Lawson

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.

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