Twelve Manhasset Secondary School seniors have been named semifinalists in the National Merit Scholarship Program. Congratulations to Amanda Cao, Catherine Furlong, Sydney Ginsburg, Matthew Kiley, Jiacheng Li, Justin Liu, Sofia Matos, Dohyeon Park, Oliver Reinhardt, Ella Wesson, Elizabeth Wu and Serena Zhao.
The National Merit Scholarship Corporation awards this distinction annually to approximately 16,000 high school students nationwide. The semifinalists have qualified to compete for approximately 7,600 available National Merit Scholarships worth more than $31 million. They qualified by scoring among the highest in the state on the Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test last year. The nationwide pool of semifinalists represents less than 1 percent of the highest-scoring seniors in the U.S., including the highest-scoring entrants in each state.
“I am extremely proud of these students,” Manhasset Secondary School Principal Dr. Dean Schlanger said. “They have put in a lot of hard work to be recognized as among the best in the nation. This is a testament to each semifinalist’s dedication to his or her studies. It’s also an honor to have such a large number of Manhasset seniors advancing to this level of the competition. It speaks volumes of our school community.”
Finalists will be announced in February 2020 and winners in the spring. Merit Scholar designees are selected on the basis of their skills, accomplishments and potential for success in rigorous college studies.
—Submitted by Manhasset School District
