12 Edina High Seniors named National Merit Semi-Finalists

EDINA, Minn. – Edina Public Schools is pleased to announce that 12 Edina High School seniors are among the 16,000 students chosen nationwide to compete for the reputable National Merit Scholarship. Nearly 1.5 million students entered the Test (PSAT/NMSQT®), which served as the initial screening process.

The following Edina students were named National Merit Semi-finalists: Yasmeen Almog, Emily Cherkassky, Sarah Downey, Elise Georis, Jessica Hankes, Sarah Jones, Andrea Kimball, Kathleen McDonald, Leslie Mei, Grace Meyer, Hunter Pribyl-Huguelet and Anisha Singh.

“EHS is extremely proud of these students on their recent accomplishments with the National Merit Scholarship Program," said Edina High School Principal Bruce Locklear. "We wish them continued success in this competitive and greatly respected program, and congratulate them on achieving this level of recognition.  This honor recognizes many hours of hard work by our students as they continue to excel nationally.” 

More than 1.5 million juniors in about 22,000 high schools entered the 2013 National Merit Scholarship Program by taking the 2010 Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test (PSAT/NMSQT®), which served as an initial screen of program entrants. The nationwide pool of Semifinalists, which represents less than one percent of U.S. high school seniors, includes the highest scoring entrants in each state.  

About 90 percent 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.  To become a Finalists, a Semifinalist must have an outstanding academic record throughout high school, be endorsed and recommended by the high school principal, and earn SAT scores that confirm the student’s earlier performance on the qualifying test.