Crescenta Valley High School has eight National Merit Semi-Finalists for the 2016-2017 academic year. They are Brendan Caver, Sara Yoojin Choi, William Chung, Jocelyn Gould, Samantha Gould, Yeran Lee, Jason Park and John Woo.

The National Merit® Scholarship Program is an academic competition for recognition and scholarships that began in 1955. High school students enter the National Merit Program by taking the Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test (PSAT/NMSQT®)—a test which serves as an initial screen of approximately 1.6 million entrants each year—and by meeting published program entry and participation requirements, according to the National Merit website.

There are 1.6 million entrants; about 50,000 of those students have the highest PSAT/NMSQT test scores qualify for the program. Of those about 16,000 students qualify as Semifinalists. In February 2017 about 15,000 students will be notified they have reached the Finalists level. In March the students will be notified that they will be awarded the National Merit Scholarship.

(Names are not in order of appearance in photo. Photo courtesy of CVHS)