8 D308 Students Named National Merit Semifinalists, 1 Commended

OSWEGO, IL — Nine Oswego Community Unit School District 308 students were recognized by the 2025 National Merit Scholarship Corporation Program, eight as semifinalists and one commended.

Semifinalists from Oswego East High School include Nishka Bijumalla, Bella Johnson, Mahathi Kandukuri, Finnegan Murray and Zakaria Rahali. Stephen Balhan, John Kellogg and Jessica Van Vorren represented Oswego High School as semifinalists.

Owen Driscoll, who attends Oswego High School, was named a commended student by the program.

"As a district, we are so incredibly proud of our students," Kristen Paul, assistant superintendent of learning and innovation, said in a statement. "Achieving this level of recognition is evidence of our students' academic success. Their accomplishment highlights their commitment to learning and brings great pride to our entire school community. Congratulations to these scholars for reaching this prestigious milestone and inspiring us all."

The pool of semifinalists comprises less than one percent of all United States high school seniors and includes the highest-scoring entrants in each state.

To become a National Merit finalist, students must have an outstanding academic record, be endorsed and recommended by the school principal and earn SAT scores that confirm the student's qualifying performance. The semifinalist and a school official must also submit a detailed scholarship application that includes the student's self-descriptive essay as well as information about the student's participation and leadership in school and community activities.

About 1.3 million high school juniors in about 21,000 high schools nationwide took the 2023 Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test to enter the 2025 National Merit Program. Roughly 34,000 of the 50,000 highest scorers in the country were named "Commended students" for their exceptional academic promise, district officials said.

Semifinalists will find out if they advance to the next level in February of next year, and the 2025 Merit Scholarship winners will be announced between April and July. They will join more than 382,000 students who earned the title of National Merit Scholar in the prestigious program's 70-year history.