9 Local Seniors In Semi’s For National Merit Scholarship

The National Merit Scholarship Program announced on Tuesday that 283 students from Minnesota have been named semifinalists for 2019. Of the 283 named in Minnesota 9 come from our area!

The Minnesota seniors are among the 16,000 semifinalists named as part of the annual academic competition. The students, who get selected based on scores on a PSAT qualifying test, will compete for some 7,500 scholarships worth more than $31 million, to be awarded this spring.

More than 1.6 million juniors from about 22,000 high schools entered the competition by taking the 2017 Preliminary SAT. The nationwide pool of semifinalists represents less than 1 percent of U.S. high school seniors and includes the highest-scoring entrants in each state. The remaining seniors, most of whom will advance to finalist status, must submit a scholarship application that includes an outstanding academic record, a recommendation from their schools, an essay, and an SAT score that confirm the results of the PSAT.

In addition to scholarships awarded by the non-profit National Merit organization, about 1,000 corporate-sponsored awards and an additional 4,000 college-sponsored awards will be chosen, according to the group. Some colleges award full-tuition (or more) scholarships to National Merit Semifinalists or National Merit Finalists.

The semifinalists from our area are:

Cannon Falls High School - Graham Pearson
Lakeville North High School - Anna Carow & Anna Puhek
Lakeville South High School - Hayden Epinette & Maxwell Schobel
Northfield High School - Halvor Bratland, Madelyn Hessian, & Elias Lawler
Owatonna High School - Jacob Preifer

Congratulations and good luck!

Download the Power 96 App today!