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10-13-2023 10:20pm
Westwood and Area Students Are Semifinalists in 2024 National Merit Scholarship Program
Darlene Cancell
Editor
Eight students from Westwood High School and three students from Xaverian Brothers High School in Westwood have been named Semifinalists in the 69th annual National Merit Scholarship Program, announced the National Merit Scholarship Corporation in mid-September. As Semifinalists, the eleven Westwood-based students are now members of a group of 16,000 students which represents less than one percent of high school seniors in the United States.
There were over 1.3 million juniors in about 21,000 high schools who took the 2022 Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test (PSAT/NMSQT) which serves as an initial screen. The Semifinalists are the highest-scoring test-takers in each state, and the number of Semifinalists in a state is proportional the state's percentage of the national total of graduating seniors.
The Semifinalists from Westwood High School are Sanaa Devgan, Victor Ganson, Jason Guo, Ethan Lu, Jeffrey Pan, Sean Tao, Jessica Wang, and Angie Wu.Â
Photo courtesy of Westwood High School. National Merit Scholarship Semifinalists from Westwood High School are (L to R) Ethan Lu, Sean Tao, Victor Ganson, Jessica Wang, Sanaa Devgan, Jeffrey Pan, Jason Guo, and Angie Wu.The Semifinalists from Xaverian Brothers High School are Colin Clark of Franklin, Matthew Lopez of Walpole, and Kevin Toland of Canton.
Photo by Ann Alsfeld. Pictured from Xaverian Brothers High School in this photo recognizing National Merit Semifinalists, are (L to R) Dr. Jacob Conca with students Matthew Lopez, Kevin Toland, Colin Clark, and Dr. Michael Nicholson.Additionally, a number of students received National Merit program commendations for achieving PSAT/NMSQT exam scores in the top two-thirds of high scorers.Â
From Westwood High School, they are James Beggan, John Dullea, Sonali Gopal, Ben Harte, Barry Jiang, Luke Maxwell, Seowan Park, Sophia Patrik, Samantha Schmitz, Ethan Walsh, Ellie Wu, and Anthony Yang.Â
Photo courtesy of Westwood High School. Nine of Westwood High School's twelve commended students are pictured (L to R): John Dullea, Sonali Gopal, Samantha Schmitz, Sophia Patrick, Ellie Wu, Seowon Park, Ben Harte, James Beggan, and Ethan Walsh. Not pictured are Barry Jiang, Luke Maxwell, and Anthony Yang.From Xaverian, the commended students are Ethan Cross of Stoughton, Paul Fischer of Canton, Brian Ladino of Dedham, and Graham Xavier of Westwood.
Photo by Ann Alsfeld. At Xaverian Brothers High School (L to R), Dr. Jacob Conca recognizes commended students Paul Fischer, Brian Ladino, Graham Xavier, and Ethan Cross, with help from Dr. Michael Nicholson.Of the 16,000 Semifinalists nationwide, more than 15,000 are expected to be named Finalists in February 2024. To become a Finalist, each Semifinalist and a high school official must submit a detailed scholarship application that includes the Semifinalist's academic record, participation in school and community activities, demonstrated leadership abilities, employment, and honors and awards received. The 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 or ACT scores that confirm the student's qualifying performance on the PSAT.
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Finalists will compete for one of 2,500 available National Merit Scholarship awards of $2,500, to be announced in April 2024. Additionally, approximately 840 corporate-sponsored Merit Scholarship awards will be provided by about 160 organizations to Finalists meeting the organizations'Â criteria. About 160 colleges and universities are expected to finance about 3,800 awards for Finalists who attend the sponsor institution.
Semifinalists in Westwood's Neighboring Communities
Beyond Westwood, students in the local community who achieved recognition as National Merit Scholarship Semifinalists are listed below, by town.
DEDHAM (Noble and Greenough School):Â Timothy D. Churchill, Derek Days, Shivani Gulati, Kevin Huang, Maxwell A. Huang, Alice Lin, Matthew Loose, Clemens J. Scherzer, Hyewon Suh, and Katherine L. Wei.
DOVER (Dover-Sherborn High School): Alex W. Chen, Sam Ma, and Evan Zhang.
EAST WALPOLE (T.E.C. Connections Academy Commonwealth Virtual School): Lucas C. Maher.
MEDFIELD (Medfield High School): Trenton Louis and Alexander V. Mazurenko.
MEDFIELD (Montrose School): Elizabeth A. Glaeser.
MILTON (Milton Academy): Justin Q. Chen, Hailey P. Coval, Erika J. Drisko, Scarlett E. Eldaief, Yuxin Gu, Kevin Y. Han, Ingrid Y. Hsu, and Evan Ning.
MILTON (Milton High School): Alexander McEttrick and Daniel Steinberg.
NEEDHAM (Needham High School): Aden J. Garf and Yasu P. Patel.
NEEDHAM (St. Sebastian's School): Raif S. Boit.
NEWTON CENTRE (Newton South High School): Elena Baskakova, Maxwell C. Harthorne, Taban Malihi, Julia R. Shapiro, Peter M. Vashevko, Emma X. Zhang, and Katelyn R. Zhao.
NEWTONVILLE (Newton North High Scho0l): Theodore Porfiriev, Eva W. Skelding, Amiya T. Smith, David J. Stern, Linda E. Xue, and Andy Zhou.
SHARON (Sharon High School): Ashaz H. Chowdhury, Samah A. Hamid, Isaac J. Tsymberov, Apurva Varigonda, and Jacob H. Zinno.
WALPOLE (Walpole High School): Sarah Van der Linden
WELLESLEY (Dana Hall School): Swann Li and Xiangyi Wang.
WELLESLEY (Wellesley High School): Kaloyan K. Draganov, Lily S. Jin, Lauren H. Kim, Jonathan I. Liu, Jackson N. Moss, and Alan L. Song.
WEST ROXBURY (Catholic Memorial School): Jinzhou Wu
WEST ROXBURY (Roxbury Latin School): Leonardo Bene, Theodore L. Coben, Aidan J. D'Alessandro, Akhilsai R. Damera, Dennis H. Jin, John L. Tompros, Lucas E. Vander Elst, Joseph H. Wang, and Eric G. Zhu.
Thanks to Xaverian Brothers High School, Westwood High School, and National Merit Scholarship Corporation for contributing their news to Westwood Minute.
