The Herricks, East Williston and Mineola school districts have a total of 11 semifinalists in the 2018 National Merit Scholarship Program.
These students are among approximately 16,000 semifinalists selected nationally from an estimated 1.6 million who entered the academic competition upon taking the Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test as juniors. Semifinalists represent the top one percent of United States high school seniors and highest-scoring entrants from each state.
The 16,000 national semifinalists are now eligible to compete for Merit Scholarship awards worth more than $32 million that will be offered next spring.
To be considered for a Merit Scholarship award, semifinalists must fulfill several requirements and advance to the Finalist level of competition. About 15,000 of the Semifinalists are expected to become Finalists, and approximately half of the Finalists will be selected as Merit Scholarship winners.
Herricks High School has seven seniors who were named semifinalists: Aashna Brahmbhatt, Caitlin Chou, Nicole J. Garcia, Jonathan Lum, Nicolas S. Ryan, Brian Y. Yang and Andrea M. Yeung.
The Herricks semifinalists are high achieving students who are involved in their school and community.
Aashna is president of the South Asian Student Association, vice president of the chamber choir and a member of the varsity tennis team.
Caitlin is co-president of the Robotics Club, co-president of the Teen Advisory Board at the Shelter Rock Public Library and a first-place winner in the 2016 WAC Lighting — Research Association Invitational Science Fair.
Nicole is vice president of the National Honor Society, a Chinese student ambassador and captain of the girls varsity soccer team.
Jonathan has played on the boys varsity tennis team, serves as vice president of the Future Medical Frontiers Club and is involved in National Honor Society.
Nicolas serves as a Model Congress board member and participates in Tri-M Music Honor Society, as well as the jazz band as a trumpet player.
Brian is on the boys spring track team, for which he served as captain last year, as well as the cross country and swim teams. He is co-vice president of the Chess Club and participates in the Literature Club.
Andrea is co-president of the Dance Theatre Club and is a member of Dance Repertoire and Crew. She is also an avid Tri-M Honor Society member.
Three Wheatley School seniors in the East Williston school district are semifinalists: Ally Kim, John Li and Saman Suleman.
Mineola High School senior Vijay Paliath was also named a 2018 semifinalist.
Merit scholar designees are selected on the basis of their skills, accomplishments and potential for success in rigorous college studies.
