The Half Hollow Hills Central School District is proud to announce that five students from Half Hollow Hills High School East and two students from Half Hollow Hills High School West are Semifinalists in the 70th annual National Merit Scholarship Program. These seven academically talented students join the over 16,000 Semifinalists nationwide who have an opportunity to continue in the competition for some 6,870 National Merit Scholarships worth nearly $26 million that will be offered next spring.

 

The students who earned this prestigious honor from Half Hollow Hills are High School West’s Arjun Airen and Zachary Harel, and High School East’s Noah Berlin, Victoria Geller, Tea Shouldice, Makiko Stravato and Julia Zinkin.

 

"I am honored to congratulate our seven Semifinalists in the 2025 National Merit Scholarship Program," said Dr. Patrick Harrigan, Superintendent of Schools for Half Hollow Hills. "Their selection as National Merit Semifinalists is a testament to their dedication and commitment to academic excellence. We are incredibly proud of their achievements and wish them continued success as they move forward in the program!"

 

Over 1.3 million juniors in about 21,000 high schools entered the 2025 National Merit Scholarship Program by taking the 2023 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.

 

To become a Finalist, the Semifinalist and a high school official must submit a detailed scholarship application, in which they provide information about the Semifinalist’s academic record, participation in school and community activities, demonstrated leadership abilities, employment, and honors and awards received. A Semifinalist must have an outstanding academic record throughout high school, be endorsed and recommended by a high school official, write an essay, and earn SAT® or ACT® scores that confirm the student’s earlier performance on the qualifying test.

 

From over 16,000 Semifinalists, more than 15,000 are expected to advance to the Finalist level, and in February they will be notified of this designation. All National Merit Scholarship winners will be selected from this group of Finalists. Merit Scholar designees are selected on the basis of their skills, accomplishments, and potential for success in rigorous college studies, without regard to gender, race, ethnic origin, or religious preference.

 

National Merit Scholarship winners of 2025 will be announced in four nationwide news releases beginning in April and concluding in July. These scholarship recipients will join nearly 382,000 other distinguished young people who have earned the Merit Scholar title.