Jenks High School Has 16 National Merit Semifinalists
The National Merit Scholarship Corporation has announced the semifinalists for the 2021 National Merit Scholarship Program, and 16 students from Jenks High School are among the 16,000 names on the list. Jenks High School has featured 10 or more National Merit Semifinalists in 10 of the last 12 years.
The Jenks High School students named National Merit Semifinalists from the Class of 2021 are: Maya Chandwaney, Mason Chow, Noah Coffman, Grace Ea, Caleb Ford, Daniel Jacob, Lily Jiang, Todd McDoulett, Julie Naifeh, Tyler Oakes, Gracie Shepherd, Rajita Singh, Nathan Stephan,i Grant Stuckey, Maya Vance and Victor Zhu.
These academically talented seniors now have an opportunity to continue in the competition for some 7,600 National Merit Scholarships worth more than $30 million to 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. According to the National Merit Corporation website, approximately 90 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.
Over 1.5 million juniors in about 21,000 high schools entered the 2021 National Merit Scholarship Program by taking the 2019 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.
National Merit Scholarship winners of 2021 will be announced between April and July. These scholarship recipients will join more than 345,000 other distinguished young people to earn the Merit Scholar title.
Founded in 1908, Jenks Public Schools is a suburban district consisting of approximately 12,100 students and 1,600 employees. Embracing a tradition of excellence with a vision for tomorrow, Jenks Public Schools is committed to the shared responsibility of preparing all learners for productive, responsible citizenship in an ever- changing world.
