Eleven Roslyn High School students were named semifinalists in the 2019 National Merit Scholarship Competition this month, making them among the top 1 percent of seniors statewide.
The semifinalists were among the top scorers in New York on the preliminary SAT test and National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test. This, in turn, puts them among just over 1,100 New York students and about 16,000 nationwide in line to compete for scholarships.
“The National Merit Scholarship program offers students an opportunity to match their academic abilities against the very best students across the country,” said Greg Wasserman, director of guidance at Roslyn Schools. “It is therefore a tremendous honor for the 11 Roslyn High School students who are semifinalists this year, and we are incredibly proud of their accomplishment.”
This year’s semifinalists are Josh Bloom, Dana Guggenheim, Johanna Kann, Adrian Ke, Melanie Landesberg, Priscilla Lee, Emily Leventhal, Sarah Pethani, Gemma Schneider, Ethan Sims and Jasmine Ting.
In total 83 students from area public and private schools are National Merit semifinalists.
These semifinalists include 13 students from Manhasset High School, five from Chaminade High School, one from Mineola High School, six from the Wheatley School, two from New Hyde Park Memorial High School, nine from Port Washington, 11 from Herricks, and one from Floral Park Memorial High School.
Taken together, they represent more than half of Nassau County’s 157 National Merit semifinalists.
Of the 16,000 semifinalists, around 15,000 are expected to advance to finalist status. Selection committees then begin choosing National Merit scholarship winners, with the first scholarships to be formally awarded in March.
There are three types of scholarships: corporate-sponsored Merit scholarships, National Merit $2,500 scholarships and college-sponsored Merit scholarships.
