Thirty-two seniors from five Jefferson County Public Schools (JCPS) high schools were named National Merit Scholarship Program Semifinalists this week and will now compete for finalist standing.
The students from Atherton, Ballard, duPont Manual, Eastern, and Fern Creek High Schools are among more than 16,000 academically talented Semifinalists who now have an opportunity to continue in the competition for some 6,870 National Merit Scholarships worth nearly $26 million. The scholarships will be offered next spring.
"We are so proud of our newly-named JCPS National Merit Semifinalists,” said Dr. Marty Pollio, superintendent of JCPS. “This accomplishment reflects the hard work and dedication they have put into their educational careers as well as the JCPS teachers and staff who have helped them along their journey.”
Congratulations to:
Atherton High School
Tompkins, Madeline
Ballard High School
Niemeyer, Lucas
Shumway, Samuel
Thompson, Taylor
duPont Manual High School
Agahtehrani, Aryan
Agarwal, Arav
Barton, Cole
Billiter, Ashley
Brockman, Aidan
Fu, Victoria
Griffin, Bryce
Harmon, Preston
Harris, William
Ice, Nathaniel
Jain, Saveer
Li, Dustin
Li, Summer
Lin, Douglas
Muddappa, Amogh
Nguyen, Mia
Ozyurekoglu, Melis
Patil, Neil
Peoples, Joseph
Poladia, Kalp
Sanga, Bhuvan
Sen, Sohan
Shinkle, Ryan
Teng, Lucy
Vanderhoff, Lucy
Wu, Tanya
Eastern High School
Nauha, Miro
Fern Creek High School
Draper, Amelia
To be considered for a Merit Scholarship award, Semifinalists must fulfill several requirements to advance to the Finalist level of the competition. About 95 percent of the Semifinalists are expected to attain Finalist standing, and approximately half of the Finalists will win a National Merit Scholarship, earning the Merit Scholar® title.
About National Merit Scholarships
Three types of National Merit Scholarships will be offered in the spring of 2025. Every Finalist will compete for one of 2,500 National Merit® $2500 Scholarships that will be awarded on a state-representational basis.
About 770 corporate-sponsored Merit Scholarship awards will be provided by approximately 130 corporations and business organizations for Finalists who meet their specified criteria, such as children of the grantor’s employees or residents of communities where sponsor plants or offices are located.
In addition, about 150 colleges and universities are expected to finance some 3,600 college-sponsored Merit Scholarship awards for Finalists who will attend the sponsor institution.
National Merit Scholarship winners of 2025 will be announced in four nationwide news releases beginning in April and concluding in July.