IRMO, SC 09/19/2021 – Sixteen students from Lexington-Richland School District Five have been announced as semifinalists in the National Merit Scholarship program. These academically talented high school students from School District Five are represented in the nationwide pool of semifinalists which represents less than one percent of U.S. high school seniors.
School District Five National Merit Scholarship semifinalists include: Emma Batson (Dutch Fork High), Michael Brewer (Dutch Fork High), Carolyn Chen (Dutch Fork High), Jessica Chen (Dutch Fork High), Caroline Coleman (Dutch Fork High), Cody Dedmond (Chapin High), Alexander Downs (Dutch Fork High), Anna Greene (Dutch Fork High), Benjamin Herbst (Dutch Fork High), Austin Huang (Dutch Fork High), Cindy Ju (Chapin High), Paul Kupfer (Dutch Fork High), Emma Meihofer (Dutch Fork High), Lawrence Miao (Dutch Fork High), Violet Raftery (Spring Hill High), and Fiona Schreier (Spring Hill High).
"Congratulations to each of our students who have been recognized as National Merit Scholarship Semifinalists,” said School District Five Chief of Academics and Administration Anna Miller. “These 16 students represent our highest number of semifinalists in recent years and demonstrate our district's commitment to academic excellence from our teachers and students even when faced with the many challenges of a pandemic. We celebrate with these students and their families and wish them well in the next steps of the program and their senior year."
These seniors have an opportunity to continue in the competition for some 7,500 National Merit Scholarships worth more than $30 million that will be offered next spring. High school juniors are eligible to compete for the National Merit Scholarship awards each year by participating in the Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test, which serves as an initial screening tool for program entrants.
National Merit Scholarship winners of 2022 will be announced in four nationwide news releases beginning in April and concluding in July. These scholarship recipients will join some 362,000 other distinguished young people who have earned the Merit Scholar title.
