Thirty-seven York High School students have been recognized nationally for their academic honors. Three of those York High students, Avinash Shah, Nora Sherman, and Syed Bilal Mir, have received the prestigious honor of being named National Merit Scholarship Semi-Finalists. Twenty-two were also honored as Commended Students by the National Merit Scholarship Program.
In addition to the National Merit Scholarship Program, high-achieving students from all 50 states and U.S. territories were eligible to apply to four College Board programs: National African American Recognition Program, National Hispanic Recognition Program, National Indigenous Recognition Program, and/or National Rural/Small Town Recognition Program. This year York is celebrating 11 students that received the National Hispanic Recognition award, and one student that received the National African American Recognition award.
“We are beyond proud to recognize all of these students for their tremendous hard work and dedication throughout their academic journey. The strong academic performance comes not only as a result of their own individual hard work, but also as a result of an amazing team of dedicated teachers and staff that work in partnership every day to ensure that all D205 students are educated, engaged and empowered to achieve academic excellence both in and out of the classroom,” said Superintendent Dr. Keisha Campbell.
The College Board programs celebrate underrepresented students who excel academically on College Board assessments, including PSAT/NMSQT, PSAT 10, and AP exams. Students can include this academic honor on their college applications, and many colleges intentionally recruit awardees through College Board’s Student Search Service.
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.
More than 16,000 Semifinalists were announced in the 2024 National Merit® Scholarship Program - an annual academic competition among high school students for recognition and college scholarships. These academically talented high school seniors 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. About 95 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.
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 students who have earned the Merit Scholar title.
Congratulations to all awardees:
National Merit Scholarship Semi-Finalists:
Avinash Shah
Nora Sherman
Syed Bilal Mir
National Merit Scholarship Commended Students:
Patrick D Berigan
Zachary R Brown
Joseph T Byrne
Nicholas A Cifelli
Charlotte A Damewood
Conal H Doyle
Declan J Fahey
Timothy O Flisk
Benjamin T Galarza
Lanz E Galdo
Turner W Hardin
William R Kenny
John S Kevin
Ka Thayn N Leiman
Taylor G Melino
Hannah E Morey
James T Poulson
Panos E Soupos
Orion C Stufflebeam Henry J Sweley
Jessica A Trapp
Fernando Valdes Nicholson
College Board National Hispanic Recognition Award
Andrea Luna
Benjamin Galarza
Brandon Felix
Ella Glosner
Emilio Cardenas
Fernando Valdes Nicholson
Joseph Rinchiuso
Juliana Almodovar
Martin Ryan
Max Burnison
Taylor Melind
College Board National African American Recognition Award
Edward Ferguson