Penn boasts 10 National Merit Scholarship Semifinalists

Penn High School Principal Sean Galiher announced that 10 Penn students have been named National Merit Scholarship Semifinalists.

Hala Ansari, Manaal Buchh, Marin Chester, Alexander Du, Salem Fitwi, Arthur Haines, Evan Nayee, Luca Nijim, Jeremiah Roach and Matthew Zhang achieved the academic distinction of National Merit Scholar Semifinalist.

Nearly 16,000 high school students across the country have been named Semifinalists in the 67th annual National Merit Scholarship Program. These academically talented high school seniors have an opportunity to continue in the competition for some 7,500 National Merit Scholarships worth nearly $30 million that will be offered next spring. To be considered for a Merit Scholarship award, Semifinalists must fulfill several requirements to advance to the Finalist level of the competition. About 95 percent of the Semifinalists are expected to attain Finalist standing, and approximately 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.