One Springfield High School Seniors Named National Merit Scholarship Semifinalists

By Jason Koestenblatt

Some high school students picture senior year as a cakewalk, especially once a college choice has been made.

Others are still striving to achieve, and do so on a national scale.

That’s the case for one High School senior from Springfield who is a semifinalists in the 61st annual National Merit Scholarship Program, as announced by the corporation Wednesday.

Nationally there are 16,000 semifinalists vying to reach the top level and obtain a $2,500 scholarship to put toward college.

From Springfield, the semifinalist is:

• Golden, Timothy S.

According to the program, some 1.5 million juniors across 22,000 high schools entered the 2016 National Merit Scholarship Program by taking the 2014 Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test, which serves as an initial screen of program entrants.

From the program’s requirements:

“To become a Finalist, the Semifinalist and his or her high school 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. A Semifinalist must have an outstanding academic record throughout high school, be endorsed and recommended by a high school official, write an essay, and earn SAT® scores that confirm the student’s earlier performance on the qualifying test.”

Finalists will be chosen during the spring and 2,500 National Merit Scholarship will be awarded, along with 1,000 corporate-sponsored Merit Scholarship awards.