Deer Park Senior Named National Merit Finalist

DEER PARK, NY — Deer Park High School senior Reza Zorakhsh has advanced to Finalist status in the 2025 National Merit Scholarship Program.

This academically talented student began this journey as one of about 1.3 million juniors in over 20,000 high schools nationwide who took the 2023 Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test.

National Merit Semifinalists were named last fall, representing less than one percent of high school seniors and the highest scorers in each state. Zorakhsh will now compete within a field of 15,000 Finalists for the opportunity to earn one of 6,870 National Merit Scholarships worth nearly $26 million.

"When I was a sophomore, I started hearing about this whole National Merit Scholarship program," Zorakhsh said. "Guidance counselors came in and talked about it. Looking through the whole progression from over a million people starting off, to only 15,000 being finalists, seemed so abstract. I wondered how I was going to get through all those rounds. But being here today, now that I am declared a finalist for this amazing program, I feel so grateful, especially for my family for helping me push my way through academically, as well as all of my teachers and classmates for providing a supporting environment so that I can achieve as much as I can."