Congratulations to Bishop O'Connell senior Virginia Schilder (pictured left) who has been named as a Semifinalist in the 2016 National Merit Scholarship Program.
Earlier this month, officials of the National Merit Scholarship Corporation (NMSC) announced the names of approximately 16,000 Semifinalists in the 61th annual National Merit Scholarship Program. More than 1.5 million juniors in more than 22,000 high schools entered the 2016 National Merit Scholarship Program by taking the 2014 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 Semifinalists have the opportunity to continue the competition for some 7,400 National Merit Scholarships, worth more than $32 million, that will be offered next spring.
Commended Students
In addition, eight O'Connell seniors were recognized by the National Merit Scholarship Program as Commended Students, based on their performance on the 2014 PSAT/NMSQT®:
Alex Damjanovic
Maureen Duesterhaus
Diego Garcia
Thomas Giuseppe
Emma Meng
Alexandra Rodriguez
Jacob Vanaman
David Williams
About 34,000 Commended Students throughout the nation are being recognized for their exceptional academic performance. Although they will not continue in the 2016 competition for National Merit Scholarship awards, Commended Students placed among the top five percent of the more than 1.5 million students who entered the 2016 competition by taking the 2014 PSAT/NMSQT®.
Academic Dean, Sister Catherine Hill, IHM, congratulated the students and encouraged them, borrowing from Pope Francis's words to the priests and religious gathered at St. Patrick's Cathedral in New York City yesterday. "Be grateful for your gifts that allowed you to accomplish this," she said. "Then continue to work hard, using the gifts you've been given."
Pictured below: Students recognized by the National Merit Scholarship Program are joined by Head of School, Dr. Joseph Vorbach (far right), Assistant Head of School, Carl Patton (top row, far left), and Sister Catherine Hill (far left).
