Ten JHS students named National Merit Finalists
JOHNSTON, Ia. (March 7, 2022) — Ten Johnston High School seniors have been named National Merit finalists, bringing them one step closer to consideration for 7,500 National Merit Scholarships worth nearly $30 million.
The Johnston finalists are Adam Ehler, Inesh Gogineni, Kayla Jensen, Anna Larson, Samuel Lindgren, Kunal Singhal, Kathryn Sweet, Kade Tanke, Christopher Tu, and Brian Zhang. The students were in September named semifinalists in the 67th annual National Merit Scholarship Program. Today, all 10 of these academically talented high school seniors were moved to finalist status.
Three types of National Merit scholarships are being offered this year: 2,500 National Merit $2,500 scholarships, about 1,000 corporate-sponsored Merit Scholarship awards, and 4,000 college-sponsored Merit Scholarship awards. The National Merit Scholarship Corporation (NMSC) will begin notifying scholarship winners this month. The announcements will be released publicly between April and July.
To be considered for a Merit Scholarship® award, semifinalists had to fulfill several requirements to advance to the finalist level of the competition. About 95 percent of the semifinalists were expected to attain finalist standing, and about half of the finalists will win a National Merit Scholarship, earning the Merit Scholar® title.
High school juniors entered the 2022 National Merit Scholarship Program by taking the 2020 Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test (PSAT/NMSQT®), which served as an initial screen of program entrants. The nationwide pool of Semifinalists, representing less than one percent of U.S. high school seniors, includes the highest-scoring entrants in each state. The number of Semifinalists in a state is proportional to the state’s percentage of the national total of graduating seniors.
To become a finalist, the semifinalist and a high school official needed to submit a detailed scholarship application, in which they provide information about the semifinalist’s academic record, participation in school and community activities, demonstrated leadership abilities, employment, and honors and awards received. A semifinalist must have an outstanding academic record throughout high school, be endorsed and recommended by a high school official, and write an essay.
NMSC is a not-for-profit organization that operates without government assistance, was established in 1955 specifically to conduct the annual National Merit Scholarship Program. Scholarships are underwritten by NMSC with its own funds and by approximately 400 business organizations and higher education institutions that share NMSC’s goals of honoring the nation’s scholastic champions and encouraging the pursuit of academic excellence.
