(above, l-r) The 2020 National Merit Semifinalists from WHRHS are Phillip Ding of Green Brook Township, Jessica Young of Warren Township, Vivian Zhang of Green Brook Township, and Dave Ki of Warren Township.
2020 National Merit Semifinalists and Commended Students
Submitted by Denis Kelly
Four Watchung Hills Regional High School (WHRHS) students have been named to the 2020 National Merit Semifinalist List, and another 26 WHRHS students have been named to the 2020 National Merit Commended List.
This year’s WHRHS National Merit Semifinalists are: Phillip Ding, Dave Ki, Jessica Young and Vivian Zhang.
This year’s WHRHS students named to the Commended List, which is the category immediately following Semifinalist, are: Laura Baeyens, Jagdeep Bhatia, Catherine Cai, Nyna Chacko, Tina Chen, Tamara Hadzic, Jenna Hansen, Nicole Harris, Roopa Irakam, Niharika Iyer, Apurva Joshi, Stephanie Ju, Abigail Kotar, Sana Mamtaney, Aaron Marmolejos, Manthan Naik, James Narayanan, Annabell Pu, Julia Rubin, Cristina Sarrico, Julia M. Schink, Mayur Sharma, Katie Tan, Sarah Young, Maya Zhang, and Kevin Zu.
The designations are based on scores by these students on the Reading Test, Writing and Language Test, and Mathematics Test for the 2018 PSAT (Preliminary Scholastic Aptitude Test)/NMSQT (National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test (NMSQT) last Fall.
This year’s four National Merit Semifinalists means that as many as 52 WHRHS students have qualified as National Merit Semifinalists during the most recent six years. The year-to-year totals have been: Class of 2015 – 11; Class of 2016 – 6; Class of 2017 –10; Class of 2018 – 15; Class of 2019 – 6; and Class of 2020 – 4.
The National Merit Scholarship Program reports that the Finalists will be named later in the year. A percentage of Finalists are expected to compete for National Merit Scholarships, according to the scholarship program. Taken into account for those scholarship selections will be a variety of factors, including the student’s subsequent SAT scores that confirm the score in the PSAT/NMSQT, an essay, as well as an endorsement and recommendation from the student’s high school, demonstrations of leadership and participation in school and community activities.
Photo by WHRHS
