Hoover schools have 22 National Merit semifinalists for 2020-21 school year
The Hoover public school system has 22 students who were named 2021 National Merit semifinalists by the National Merit Scholarship Corp.
That includes 13 students at Spain Park High School and nine at Hoover High School.
The Hoover school district’s 22 National Merit semifinalists make up about 10% of all the National Merit semifinalists in Alabama this year, school officials said.
Being a National Merit semifinalist means that these students were among the highest-scoring students in Alabama who took the 2019 preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test (frequently referred to as the PSAT). The number of semifinalists in each state is proportional to the state’s percentage of the national total of graduating seniors.
Spain Park High School’s semifinalists are Megan Amrinel, Benjamin Deas, Kruthika Dheeravath, Adam Ebrahim, Usman Farroqui, Samuel Harrison, Anna Morris, Zane Peacock, Advaith Vadlakonda, John Watson, Wyatt Williams, John Wilson and Amy Yang.
Hoover High School’s semifinalists are Cullen Blanton, Luke Clark, Wesley Crenshaw (not pictured), Katelyn Heglas, Ria Shah, Peter Shen, Isabella Torres, Srija Vem and Nathan Williams.
More than 1.5 million juniors in about 21,000 high schools across the country took the 2019 PSAT, and about 16,000 were chosen as National Merit semifinalists. About 15,000 of those are expected to be named finalists in February, and more than half of the finalists will win a National Merit Scholarship and earn the title of Merit Scholar.
In total, about 7,600 National Merit Scholarships worth more than $30 million will be offered to students this year.
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 and write an essay.
The National Merit Scholarship Corp. is a nonprofit organization established in 1955 that operates without government assistance.
Scholarships are underwritten by the corporation with its own funds and by about 400 business organizations and higher education institutions that share the goals of honoring the nation’s scholastic champions and encouraging the pursuit of academic excellence.
For more information, go to nationalmerit.org.