National Merit Scholar semifinalists announced
October 30, 2018
Four seniors were named semifinalists in the National Merit Scholarship Program. Abigail Banks-Hehenberger, John Maloney, Elias Roll and Keenan Walker are among 16,000 seniors in the nation to earn the recognition. Each year about 1.6 million students apply, but only one percent are accepted as National Merit Semifinalists. The four students are going to compete for 7,500 scholarships worth more than $31 million.
Keenan Walker, National Merit semifinalist.
Students qualify for the National Merit program by earning top scores on the SAT, which they took during their junior year. The highest scoring students from each state are named semifinalists.
“It was a pleasant surprise. Since progression takes the PSAT score in addition to other academic merit into account, I appreciate the recognition. Last year, I was on the fence about taking the test, but I’m glad I took it regardless,” senior Kennan Walker said.
To be considered for a National Merit Scholarship, semifinalists must advance to a finalist by writing an essay, obtaining letters of recommendation and demonstrating high academic performance. Winners for this will be announced this spring.
Abigail Banks-Hehenberger, National Merit semifinalist.
“I’m very much focused on challenging myself when it comes to school. Thats something that’s really important to me and I would say it was more work in my freshman year but then developed good study habits,” senior Abigail Banks-Hehenberger said.
A lot of time was put into getting recognition for their hard work. They developed good study habits from the beginning of their high school careers, and focused on what was important to them.
“I realized in middle school that I needed to work a bit harder if I wanted to accomplish my goals. It took a while to develop skills better suited to the academic environments I’m in now, but with time-management and lots of tea, I can usually do what I need to get done,” Walker said.
With their outstanding recognition, these students have a lot of options of where they want to continue their academic careers. They all have a lot of choices they could make for what college they choose to go to.
“I’m looking at pretty much only schools on the East coast. I think the only school I’m applying to in Minnesota is Carlton, but then my top choices are all in larger cities in the East,” said Banks-Hehenberger.
About 90 percent of semifinalists will qualify to become finalists with about half of the finalists earning a scholarship. Each finalist competes for a $2,500 scholarship. About 1,000 scholarship awards provided by corporations, businesses and colleges will also be awarded.
” The award doesn’t mean much to me in terms of a verification of any kind of intelligence. It’s just about your ability to take a test. I appreciate the honor, it’s a big deal. It’s nice to have some sort of affirmation,” Banks-Hehenberger said.
Although there is no GPA that is required to receive this award, these four students have worked really hard through their high school career and maintained outstanding GPA’s through the years.
” I have an unweighted 4.00, but I’m not sure about my weighted GPA. Ive been a full-time PSEO student since junior year, and those classes aren’t weighted the same as AP classes are,” Walker said.
These students have to work really hard to get the grades they have, and to earn this recognition. They do AP classes, participate in after school activities and clubs and some even do PSEO while they are in high school.
Elias Roll, National Merit semifinalist.
“School tends to come easier for me, but I do get a lot of school work. I had quite a bit of work but I kept up on it and did what I needed to do. I don’t feel like I have to put in a ton of work, but I do feel like I put a decent amount of time outside of class, and make sure I have a pretty good understanding of what I’m trying to do,” senior Elias Roll said.
A lot of hard work and dedication went into these student’s high school careers. They participate in after school activities and figure out ways to balance everything they have going on.
John Maloney, National Merit semifinalist.
” I usually push it back until the last day, so I end up spending six hours in one day completing all my work, when I could’ve been spacing It out over the last couple days,” senior John Maloney said.
Banks-Hehenberger, Maloney, Roll and Walker are among just 16,000 seniors in the nation to earn the recognition. They have all worked extremely hard to accomplish this. They all demonstrate high academic performance and achieve the goals they have. The winners will be announced this spring to reveal what all of the students accomplishments achieve for their future.
Matt Moore • Jan 3, 2019 at 8:51 pm
Great article emma! Previous to reading this article I didn’t know anything about what a merit scholar was as how hard it is to achieve one . The detail you provided with in this article was incredible! I thought you had some good quotes also.