6 Evanston Township High School Seniors Honored By National Merit

EVANSTON, IL — A half-dozen students at Evanston Township High School have been named semifinalists for 2024 National Merit Scholarships. And, for the first time in four years, no seniors from either Evanston's private high schools were included among this year's crop of potential scholarship winners.

The six ETHS students were among the more than 16,000 high school students who qualified from across the country based on the results of Preliminary SAT tests that they took last year, with the number of semifinalist slots in a state determined by its share of the nation's sum of graduating seniors.

This year's semifinalists are:

• Jacob D. Dicrescenzo
• Anna C. Grigorescu
• Sarah M. Schulkin
• Alexander G. Senechal
• Aidan M. Thomson
  
• Molly P. Zaslow

The National Merit Scholarship Corporation is an Evanston-based not-for-profit that distributes three types of scholarships every spring, totaling nearly $28 million for more than 7,100 students,

About 840 students will receive corporate-sponsored awards, which are mostly reserved for the children of people who work for one of about 160 different businesses.

Another 2,500 students will receive $2,500 cash each, to be evenly distributed among different states.

And the largest group of winners is made of up finalists picked to receive 3,800 scholarships of between $500 and $2,000 a year for up to four year of undergraduate study. About 160 different colleges and universities finance the awards.

In order for semifinalists to qualify as a finalist and become eligible for scholarships, they must submit a detailed application, including an essay and recommendation from a high school official.

Last year, nine ETHS students were named National Merit semifinalists, down from 13 members of the class of 2022.

The last time there were no semifinalists named from students at Beacon Academy or Roycemore School was the 2019-20 school year.