- North Glendale Elementary
- Homepage
Kirkwood School District Recognizes National Merit Students
Kirkwood School District Recognizes National Merit Students
The Kirkwood School District board recognized 17 seniors who were named National Merit Semifinalists and National Merit Commended Students. Pictured left to right bottom row: Jack Bauer, Maggie Klein, Merry Schlarman, Sylvia Edwards, and Helena Verbrugge. Second row: Ethan Peterson, Noah Gjelvik, Trevor Kates, Megan Glasgow, Sara Simkins, and Ezra Mendelson. Last row: Jack Edwards, Hayden Davidson, Benjamin Peter, Patrick McPheeters, and Austin Haga. Not pictured: Grace Marcus.
Additional photo: Grace Marcus
Kirkwood High School has Six Seniors Named as National Merit Semifinalists and National Merit Commended Students Announced
Kirkwood High School (KHS) seniors Hayden Davidson, Maggie Klein, Ezra Mendelson, Benjamin Peter, Merry Schlarman and Sara Simkins were named in the 2022 National Merit Scholarship Program. They are among some 16,000 Semifinalists announced nationwide.
These academically talented high school seniors have an opportunity to continue in the competition for some 7,500 National Merit Scholarships worth nearly $30 million that will be offered next spring. To be considered for a Merit Scholarship award, Semifinalists must fulfill several requirements to advance to the Finalist level of the competition. About 95 percent of the Semifinalists are expected to attain Finalist standing, and approximately half of the Finalists will win a National Merit Scholarship, earning the Merit Scholar title.
High school juniors entered the 2022 National Merit Scholarship Program by taking the 2020 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. 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 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, write an essay, and earn SAT scores that confirm the student’s earlier performance on the qualifying test.
From the approximately 16,000 Semifinalists, about 15,000 are expected to advance to the Finalist level, and in February they will be notified of this designation. All National Merit Scholarship winners will be selected from this group of Finalists. Merit Scholar designees are selected on the basis of their skills, accomplishments, and potential for success in rigorous college studies, without regard to gender, race, ethnic origin, or religious preference.
Three types of National Merit Scholarships will be offered in the spring of 2022. Every Finalist will compete for one of 2,500 National Merit $2,500 Scholarships that will be awarded on a state-representational basis. About 1,000 corporate-sponsored Merit Scholarship awards will be provided by approximately 220 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.
National Merit Scholarship winners of 2022 will be announced in four nationwide news releases beginning in April and concluding in July. These scholarship recipients will join more than 362,000 other distinguished young people who have earned the Merit Scholar title.
Eleven KHS Seniors Named as National Merit Commended Students
Kirkwood High School (KHS) seniors Jack Bauer, Jack Edwards, Sylvia Edwards, Noah Gjelvik, Megan Glasgow, Austin Haga, Trevor Kates, Grace Marcus, Patrick McPheeters, Ethan Peterson and Helena Verbrugge. were named National Merit Commended Students in the 2022 National Merit Scholarship Program.
They are among some 34,000 Commended Students throughout the nation being recognized for their exceptional academic promise. Although they will not continue in the 2022 competition for National Merit Scholarship awards, Commended Students placed among the top 50,000 students who entered the 2022 competition by taking the 2020 Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test (PSAT/NMSQT®).