18 Newton Seniors Named National Merit Scholarship Semi-Finalists

NEWTON, MA — Eighteen high school seniors from Newton were named semi-finalists for the 2020 National Merit Scholarship Program.

The semi-finalists were announced on Wednesday and include approximately 16,000 high-school seniors that will go on to compete for the scholarships that will be offered next spring. According to a press release from the National Merit Scholarship Program, more than 90 percent of the semi-finalists will be named as finalists for the scholarship.

Of those finalists, about half will win a scholarship.

More than 1.5 million students applied for the highly competitive scholarship and the semi-finalists represent less than 1 percent of all high-school seniors in the U.S.

For each state, the number of semi-finalists is proportional to that state’s percentage of the total graduating seniors in the country.

Here are the semi-finalists for the scholarship from Newton:

NEWTON COUNTRY DAY SCHOOL OF THE SACRED HEART

• Faith H. Ellis

NEWTON SOUTH H. S.

• Mark L. Barbone
• Matthew W. Cole,
• Jonathan S. Edelman
• Ethan G. Kopf
• Daniel M. Sivachenko,
• Lyle J. Spitz,
• Rachel L. Wei
• Andrew J. Weinfeld,
• Jessica L. Wu,

NEWTON NORTH H. S.

• Emily Bennett,
• Sarika S. Desai
• Ella S. McNally
• Margaret V. Needham,
• Emily Pan,
• Jacob T. Wright,
• Cory M. Zhou,
• Zhiquing Zhou

The merit scholarship program was created in 1955. Students in grades nine through 12 vie for academic recognition and financial support. About 1.6 million students take the qualifying test every year and about 50,000 of the highest scorers have the chance to be considered.

To become a finalist, the program explains that students and a high-school official must submit a detailed application. The application must contain information about a student’s academic record, leadership abilities, the honors and awards they’ve received and more.

Students will find out in February whether they make it to the finalist stage. The scholarship winners will be announced beginning in April 2020.