Officials of National Merit Scholarship Corporation (NMSC®) announced the names of approximately 16,000 semifinalists in the 67th annual National Merit

Scholarship Program. 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% 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.

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 approximately 400 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.

From Glendale High School, Lilly Armstrong achieved semifinalist standing as did Sarine S. Mardirosian from Hoover High School. From Flintridge Preparatory School, Loran Baxter Mercado, Liam Chia, Isaac Chung, Elise Desjarlais, Aaron Freedman, Lori Jang, Ethan Kim, Timothy Kreinberg, Nicole Mirzaian, Colin Ng, Martino Porcu, Ashwin Sivakumar, Owen Sussman and Trinity Tai; from Flintridge Sacred Heart Academy, Adele Kelly; from La Cañada High School, George Branda, David Garland, Benjamin Hubler, Eliza Jeffries, Adam Jensen, Alex Konakov, Leon Kornfeld, Ashly Lam, Connor Lee, Phoebe Luo, Sean Mealey, Aidan Robinson, Kamran Samudrala, Ryan Silva, Lillian Snow, Colin Wang and Seojin Yun; from St. Francis High School, Quinn Deitch and Gabriel Gottheim; from Clark Magnet High School, Abdullah Ahmed and Matthew Keshishian; from Crescenta Valley High School, Miriam Awan, David Kim, Ellena Kim, Nathan Kim and Seon-Jae Yoon.