Eleven high school students from the North Shore of Long Island were named recipients of $2,500 National Merit Scholarships on Tuesday.
Of those 11, four come from Manhasset Secondary Schoo- – Sydney Ginsburg, Oliver Reinhardt, Elizabeth Wu and Serena Zhao.
James Zheng from Garden City High School, Raymond Lin from Great Neck North High School, Gabriel Magidson from Great Neck South High School, Nicole Khaimov from Glen Cove High School, Shreya Patel from Herricks High School, Kyra McCreery from North Shore High School and Daniel Flyer from Roslyn High School were also awarded scholarships.
Efforts to reach representatives from school districts for comment were unavailing.
Probable career fields of the 11 winners included computer science, computer programming, science/research, medicine, electrical engineering, biomedical engineering, finance and education administration.
National Merit $2,500 designees were chosen from a talent pool of more than 15,000 finalists in the 2020 National Merit Scholarship Corp. Program. The program honors individual students who show exceptional academic ability and potential for success in rigorous college studies.
The number of winners in each state is based on the state’s percentage of the national total of graduating seniors. Winners are selected based on academics, the difficulty of their course work, scores from two standardized tests, contributions to school and community activities, written essays and school recommendations.
Having demonstrated exemplary academic performance throughout high school, these students were fully endorsed and recommended by their high school principals. Each student also provided biographical data and a self-description of interests, activities, accomplishments and goals.
This year’s program began in October 2018 when more than 1.5 million high school juniors in 21,000 high schools took the Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test. Of those students, 16,000, or just over 1 percent, moved on to the semifinal round, according to the corporation.
By the end of this year’s program, according to the corporation, around 7,600 finalists will earn the title of “Merit Scholar” cumulating in more than $30 million in college scholarships nationwide.
The National Merit Scholarship Program is a privately financed academic competition for recognition and scholarships that began in 1955. Scholars may use their awards at any regionally accredited United States college or university.
