National Merit Semifinalists Named

Matthew Jester has been named a National Merit Semifinalist while Sarah Lungaro and Joseph Vanchiere were named Commended Students. Jester was identified as an academically talented high school senior who will have an opportunity to continue in the competition for some 8,400 Merit Scholarship awards, worth more than $36 million that will be offered next spring. To be considered for a Merit Scholarship award, Semifinalists must advance to the Finalist level of the competition by fulfilling several requirements. About 90 percent of the Semifinalists are expected to attain Finalist standing, and approximately half of the Finalists will be selected as Merit Scholarship winners, earning the Merit Scholar title.

Lungaro and Vanchiere are two of 34,000 high performers who were named on the basis of their exceptional academic promise. Although they will not continue in the 2012 competition for National Merit Scholarships, the pair placed among the top five percent of the more than 1.5 million students who took the PSAT last year. 

NMSC, a not-for-profit organization that operates without government assistance, was established in 1955 specifically to conduct the annual National Merit Program. Scholarships awarded through the program are underwritten by NMSC’s own funds and by approximately 500 business organizations and higher education institutions that share NMSC’s goals of honoring the nation’s scholastic champions and encouraging the pursuit of academic excellence.