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Three Northern Panhandle Students Named National Merit Semifinalists

WHEELING – A trio of Northern Panhandle High School students have been named National Merit Semifinalists, placing them among a select group of academic achievers across the United States – with the opportunity to reach even greater heights in the coming months.

Wheeling Central Catholic’s Charles Frizzell, Brooke High School’s Shane Thoma and Madonna High School’s Jillian Cottrill were among the 58 high school seniors across West Virginia to be named National Merit Semifinalists. More than 16,000 students nationally earned that honor.

These academically talented high school seniors have an opportunity to continue in the competition for some 7,250 National Merit Scholarships worth nearly $28 million that will be offered next spring.

About 95% 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.

High school juniors entered the 2023 National Merit Scholarship Program by taking the 2021 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 1% 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.

Every Finalist will compete for one of 2,500 National Merit $2,500 Scholarships that will be awarded on a state-representational basis. About 950 corporate-sponsored Merit Scholarship awards will be provided by approximately 180 corporations and business organizations for finalists who meet their specifi ed criteria, such as children of the grantor’s employees or residents of communities where sponsor plants or offices are located.

In addition, about 160 colleges and universities are expected to finance some 3,800 college-sponsored Merit Scholarship awards for finalists who will attend the sponsor institution.

National Merit Scholarship winners of 2023 will be announced in four nationwide news releases beginning in April and concluding in July. These scholarship recipients will join nearly 368,000 other distinguished young people who have earned the Merit Scholar title.

In West Virginia, two schools – George Washington High School in Charleston and Morgantown High Schools – each had 10 students named semifinalists.

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