Jamesville-DeWitt High School students recently were named as semifinalists and commended students in the 2019 National Merit Scholarship Competition.
Semifinalists are Samantha Aitken, Alan Gao, Matthew Scibilia and Albert Wang. These four students are among 16,000 scholastically talented high school seniors have an opportunity to continue in the competition for some 7,500 Merit Scholarships awards, worth $31 million, that will be offered next spring.
To be considered for a Merit Scholarship award, semifinalists must fulfill several requirements and advance to the finalist level of the competition. About 90 percent of the semifinalists are expected to become finalists, and approximately half of the finalists will be selected as merit scholarship winners.
J-D’s National Merit Scholarship Competition commended students are: Emma G. Buck, Olivia Budelmann, Benjamin J. Catania, Ian M. Freezman, Stella M. Heflin, Liam I. Kaplan, Nolan M. Kinahan, Muhammad Musaab, Dhruv D. Nanavati, Nancy M. O’Connor, Sahil Seth, Greta M. Smith, Gregory D. Tillman and Benjamin Virgo. A Letter of Commendation from the school and National Merit Scholarship Corporation (NMSC), which conducts the program, will be presented by the principal to these scholastically talented seniors.
About 34,000 Commended Students throughout the nation are being recognized for their exceptional academic promise. Although they will not continue in the 2019 competition for National Merit Scholarships, Commended Students placed among the top 50,000 scorers of more than 1.6 million students who entered the 2019 competition by taking the 2017 Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test.