2025 Future Leaders: Bethel Student A Finalist For National Merit Scholarship

BETHEL, CT — Patch and T-Mobile are teaming up to present a look at future leaders in the community, and one Bethel student is certainly on the right track.

Chiru Akkili, a student at Bethel High School, has been named a National Merit Scholarship Finalist. He is one of only 15,000 students in the nation to receive the honor, according to the school district.

Approximately half of the finalists will win a National Merit Scholarship, earning the Merit Scholar title, according to BHS Principal Chris Troetti.

NMSC, a not-for-profit organization that operates without government assistance, was established in 1955 specifically to conduct the annual National Merit Scholarship Program.

Scholarships are underwritten by NMSC with its own funds and by approximately 280 business organizations, higher education institutions, and individual donors that share NMSC's goals of honoring the nation's scholastic champions and encouraging the pursuit of academic excellence.

Over 1.3 million juniors in about 21,000 high schools entered the 2025 National Merit Scholarship Program by taking the 2023 Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test (PSAT/NMSQT), which served as an initial screen of program entrants, according to the program.

The nationwide pool of semifinalists, representing less than one percent of U.S. high school seniors, includes the highest-scoring entrants in each state. The number of semifinalists in a state is proportional to the state's percentage of the national total of graduating seniors.

To become a finalist, the semifinalist and a high school official must submit a detailed scholarship application, in which they provide information about the semifinalist's academic record, participation in school and community activities, demonstrated leadership abilities, employment, and honors and awards received.

Merit Scholar designees are selected on the basis of their skills, accomplishments, and potential for success in rigorous college studies, without regard to gender, race, ethnic origin, or religious preference, according to the program.

National Merit Scholarship winners of 2025 will be announced in four nationwide news releases beginning in April and concluding in July. These scholarship recipients will join more than 382,000 other distinguished young people who have earned the Merit Scholar title, according to the program.