Nine Penn students named National Merit Scholarship Semifinalists

Penn High School Principal Dr. Sean Galiher announced that nine Penn students have earned National Merit Scholarship Semifinalist status.

Owen Black, Jacob Ciliberti, Lillian Gregory, Lily Meyer, Olivia Nijim, Noah Schafer, Connor Schmitt, Jayden Wang and Felix Zhang are the academically talented high school seniors have an opportunity to continue in the competition for some 7,140 National Merit Scholarships worth nearly $28 million that will be offered next spring.

“We are extremely proud of these students,” Galiher said. “This accomplishment is a culmination of the great efforts of these students including all the wonderful teachers they have had while attending P-H-M schools.”

More than 1.3 million juniors in about 21,000 high schools entered the 2024 National Merit Scholarship Program by taking the 2022 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.

From over 16,000 Semifinalists, more than 15,000 are expected to advance to the Finalist level, and in February they will be notified of this designation. All National Merit Scholarship winners will be selected from this group of Finalists.

Merit Scholar designees are selected on the basis of their skills, accomplishments, and potential for success in rigorous college studies, without regard to gender, race, ethnic origin, or religious preference. National Merit Scholarships Three types of National Merit Scholarships will be offered in the spring of 2024. Every Finalist will compete for one of 2,500 National Merit® $2500 Scholarships that will be awarded on a state-representational basis.