2019 National Merit Scholarship Semifinalists

Congratulations to the APS students who earned this distinguished honor.

Albuquerque Public Schools is proud to announce its semifinalists in the 2019 National Merit Scholarship Program:

Albuquerque High School
Khadijah Burke, Matthew Espen, Alisa Meraz-Fishbein, Diana Mullen, Carmen Ortega

Cibola High School
Kaylee Johnson, Catherine Thomas

College and Career High School
Thomas Fisher, Logan Franchell

Early College Academy
Madeleine Christison, Abigail Craff, Kioshi Morosin, Ruth Mueller, Alexander Rodriguez

Eldorado High School
Lauren Harstad, Eric Osmon, Zachary Wenner

La Cueva High School
Alexander Bethel, Lauren Chang, Brynn Elson, Audrey Gates, Jennifer Harned, Alia Pedersen, Allison Rodas, Anita Sumali, Jerry Sun, Jason Xiong, Brad Zhang, Jared Zhang

Sandia High School
Jessica Ganley

These academically talented high school seniors are among 16,000 or so semifinalists from across the nation who have earned the distinction in the 64th annual National Merit Scholarship Program.

More than 1.6 million juniors in about 22,000 high schools entered the program by taking the 2017 Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test, which served as an initial screen of program entrants.

The nationwide pool of semifinalists represents 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 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.

More than 90 percent of the semifinalists are expected to attain finalist standing, and about half of the finalists will win a National Merit Scholarship, earning the Merit Scholar title.

More than 7,500 National Merit Scholarships worth more than $31 million that will be offered next spring.

• Every finalist will compete for one of 2,500 National Merit $2500 Scholarships that will be awarded on a state-representational basis.
• About 1,000 corporate-sponsored Merit Scholarship awards will be provided by approximately 230 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 180 colleges and universities are expected to finance some 4,000 college-sponsored Merit Scholarship awards for finalists who will attend the sponsor institution.

NMSC, a not-for-profit organization that operates without government assistance, was established in 1955 specifically to conduct the annual National Merit Scholarship Program. Scholarships are underwritten by NMSC with its own funds and by approximately 410 business organizations and higher education institutions that share NMSC’s goals of honoring the nation’s scholastic champions and encouraging the pursuit of academic excellence.