The National Merit Scholarship Corporation just announced the names of approximately 16,000 semifinalists in the 65th annual National Merit Scholarship Program including 92 students from New Mexico.
These academically talented high school seniors have an opportunity to compete for some 7,600 National Merit Scholarships worth more than $31 million that will be offered next spring, officials said in a news release.
The nationwide pool of these high school scholars represent less than 1% of U.S. high school seniors and includes the highest-scoring entrants in each state.
Over 90% of the semifinalists are expected to attain finalist standing, and about half will win a National Merit Scholarship, earning the Merit Scholar title, official said.
Criteria includes SAT or ACT scores, a detailed application, an essay, school or teacher endorsement, academic records, participation in community and school activities, demonstration of leadership, employment and honors awards received.
New Mexico high school senior National Merit Semifinalists, by city and school, are:
Alamogordo
Alamogordo HS: Merrell, Maxwell A.
Imago Dei Academy: Newsom, Daniel M.
Albuquerque
Albuquerque Academy: Auster, Zachary J.; Bradley, Robert T.; Dominguez, Carlos A.; Giunta, Katherine S.; Hess, Benjamin T.; Ji, Sonny; Kosick, Ryan D.; Paul, Adittyo; Paul, Emily H.; Perez, AnaMaria; Smith, Jesse A.; Upham, Michelle L.; and Viets, Christian D.
Albuquerque HS: Cannon, Mason L.; Vanis, Avalon L.; and Yang, Rishi T.
Albuquerque Institute for Mathematics and Science: Bermudez, Brian K.; Bilotta, Danielle E.; Dunne, Aidan; Foresi, Emma P. and Leigh, Zachary
College and Career High School: Reitz, Isabella R.
Early College Academy: Christensen-Brown, Elisabeth T.; Ha, Daniel V.; Mellin, Anna F.; Perce, Abigail A.; Vigneau, Tobias M.
Eldorado High School: Leppala, Barbara J.; Sandoval, Karenna N.; Urenda, Lauren A.; Wickstrom, Jack E.
Home schooled: May, Noah P.; Pugh, Joseph; Rose, Josiah M.
La Cueva HS: Abudushalamu, Adina; Allred, Etienne G.; Feng, David J.; Ho, Emily B.; Ingram, Kaya K.; Jiang, Grace; Limary, Cody; McBee, Trenton H.; Terrones, Wesley; Watson, Blake T.; Zhang, Roland Z.
St. Pius HS: Johnston, Tyler M.; Pareja, Monica T.; Stotzer, David C.
Grants
Grants HS: Rychener, Natalie D.
Las Cruces
Arrowhead Park Early College HS: Badawy, Mohammad A. and Ruff, Rebekah D.
Las Cruces HS: Fernald, Julia P. and Iqbal, Reema
Mayfield HS: Sanchez-Maes, Mireya C.
Los Alamos
Los Alamos HS: Armstrong, Dara A.; Ben-Naim, Talia; Dougherty, Sean M.; Henderson, Eleanor M.; Holmes, Emily E.; Huang, Cinlong; Iramk-Bent, Eli S.; Joyce, Malea B.; Lopez, Dimitri S.; Nadiga, Gopal; Osburn, Trystan; Romero, Juan D.; Sadasivan, Neha and Waters, Cameron
Los Lunas
Los Lunas HS: Good, Forest T. and Marry, Matthew W.
Moriarty
Estanica Valley Classical Academy: Leavitt, Wesley B.
Penasco
Penasco HS: MacAuley, Ariana G.
Rio Rancho
V. Sue Cleveland HS: Lujan-Flores, Xavier E.
Rio Rancho: Helms, Kenji S.
The Ask Academy: Hickman, Ryan W. and McMillan, Zoe K.
Sandia Park
East Mountian HS: MacKellar, Kalob A. and Pereira, Christian E.
Santa Fe
Academy for Technlogy and the Classics: BenSlama-McKinley, Eamon C.; McCombs, John R.; Pope, Etta C.
Home schooled: Wilcox, Abigail K.
Mandela International Magnet School: Ehlers, Malcolm I.
The Masters Program: Moon, Dante L.
Santa Fe HS: Nadon, Rowan J.
Santa Fe Prepatory: Albright, Apollo J.; LoRusso, Ryan A.; Murray, Susannah F.
Santa Teresa
Santa Teresa HS: Erramouspe, Trevor J.
Socorro
Socorro HS: Jacobs, Bryce O.
