10 Half Hollow Hills Students Named 2024 National Merit Semifinalists

The Half Hollow Hills Central School District is proud to announce that four students from High School East and six students from High School West are Semifinalists in the 69th annual National Merit Scholarship Program. These 10 academically talented students join the approximately 16,000 Semifinalists nationwide who have an opportunity to continue in the competition for some 7,140 National Merit Scholarships worth nearly $28 million that will be offered next spring.

The students who earned this prestigious honor from Half Hollow Hills are High School West’s Rayan Afzal, Daniel Dobin, Justin Florian, Isaac Kim, Jordyn Morris and Hayley Morris, and High School East’s Aidan Joseph, Jayden Neidell, Stasya Selizhuk and Arnav Singh.

“I am privileged to congratulate our ten Semifinalists in the 2024 National Merit Scholarship Program,” said Dr. Patrick Harrigan, the Half Hollow Hills Superintendent of Schools. “The selection of these students as National Merit Semifinalists is evidence of their hard work and dedication to their education in Half Hollow Hills. We wish them the best of luck as they advance in this program!”

Over 1.3 million juniors in about 21,000 high schools entered the 2024 National Merit Scholarship Program by taking the 2022 Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test (PSAT/NMSQT®), which served as an initial screen of program entrants. The nationwide pool of Semifinalists, representing less than one percent of U.S. high school seniors, includes the highest-scoring entrants in each state. The number of Semifinalists in a state is proportional to the state’s percentage of the national total of graduating seniors.

To become a Finalist, the Semifinalist and a high school official 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® or ACT® scores that confirm the student’s earlier performance on the qualifying test.

From over 16,000 Semifinalists, more than 15,000 are expected to advance to the Finalist level, and in February they will be notified of this designation. All National Merit Scholarship winners will be selected from this group of Finalists. Merit Scholar designees are selected on the basis of their skills, accomplishments, and potential for success in rigorous college studies, without regard to gender, race, ethnic origin, or religious preference.

National Merit Scholarship winners of 2024 will be announced in four nationwide news releases beginning in April and concluding in July. These scholarship recipients will join nearly 375,000 other distinguished young people who have earned the Merit Scholar title.

An education-oriented community with high academic expectations, the Half Hollow Hills Central School District is located in a residential area of 50,000 people in the central part of Long Island, approximately 40 miles from New York City. Providing for the education of approximately 7,300 students, the school district has five elementary schools, two middle schools and two high schools. Half Hollow Hills High Schools are fully accredited by the New York State Department of Education. The district is committed to providing all students with equitable opportunities to excel in academics, athletics and the arts.