Pine-Richland Students Earn Semifinalist Designation in National Merit Program

Information submitted by Pine-Richland School District

Officials with the National Merit Scholarship Corporation Program have named five Pine-Richland High School seniors as “semifinalists” in the 2014 National Merit Scholarship competition.  

They include seniors Rachel Halliday, Monica Lacek, Jennifer Lott, Lena Ogiwara and Kyle Pomerleau. 

The students are among 16,000 semifinalists in the 59th annual National Merit Scholarship Program.

These academically talented high school seniors have the opportunity to continue in the competition for some 8,000 National Merit Scholarships worth about $35 million that will be offered in the spring of 2014.  

About 90 percent of the “semifinalists” are expected to attain “finalist” status and more than half of the finalists will win a National Merit Scholarship, earning the Merit Scholar title.

To achieve semifinalist status in the 2014 competition, students excelled on the 2012 preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship qualifying test.

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 about 450 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.