Four Roslyn High School seniors have been named finalists in this year’s National Merit Scholarship program, school district officials said Thursday.
Allison Bichoupan, Joshua Loria, Brendan Seidman and Hae Su Shin are among 15,000 students – representative of less than 1 percent of the U.S. population of high school seniors – who are eligible for 8,000 awards worth $35 million in college scholarships.
The students were notified they were named semifinalists in September. They became eligible for the program by taking the Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test as juniors in fall 2012.
School district officials said 1.5 million juniors in about 22,000 U.S. high schools entered the National Merit Scholarship program.
“I’m really excited,” said Loria, the Class of 2014’s salutatorian. “I’ve worked really hard and I’m happy to see it’s been paying off.”
In his freshman and sophomore years, Loria served as class president. He is now the student government’s treasurer.
In addition, Loria is the executive business editor of the high school’s Hilltop Beacon newspaper, president of the stock market club and a volunteer firefighter with the Roslyn Highlands Fire Department. He is also a member of the National Honor Society.
Loria said Andrews and members of the guidance department told him he was named a finalist. He also received a letter in the mail from the school district congratulating him.
“It would mean a lot to win,” said Loria, who plans to study management and entrepreneurship this fall at the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School of Business. “It’s the top of the top among the entire nation. You’re not just talking about Roslyn and you’re not just talking about New York, you’re talking about the whole United States. And I would be receiving money for college, which never hurts.”
Semifinalists had to submit records of their grades and courses as well as notification of where they intend to go to college and a personal essay.
Bichoupan said her essay took on even greater personal significance because she wrote about her great grandmother, with whom she shares her first name.
“When she passed, she left this amazing legacy of people who loved her, and rather than try to live up to her name, I hope to leave behind that same kind of legacy,” she said. “I also know for a fact that for my grandma, who is the daughter of the woman I wrote about, if I were to tell her I won, it would touch her heart,” she said.
Bichoupan is the valedictorian of the Roslyn High School Class of 2014. She is the president of the school’s math team, a four-year flute captain of the marching band and president of Roslyn High School’s model government and key club.
She said she plans to attend Cornell University in the fall to study animal science.
“Of course, the money would be fantastic because college is ridiculously expensive, but at the same time winning would also be an acknowledgement that I achieved something I worked extremely hard for, and that would be very gratifying for me,” Bichoupan said.
Efforts to reach Seidman and Su in time for publication were unavailing.
