Each could earn National Merit Scholarship
Sixteen Morgantown area high school seniors are in elite academic company today.
They were named semifinalists for the 2021 National Merit Scholarships program, the organization announced.
The nominees will now join around 16,000 of their counterparts across the country. Yearly, some 7,600 are awarded scholarships.
Morgantown High School notched the most nominees, with 10. Four were selected from University High, and the remaining two are home-schooled.
The semifinalists:
Morgantown High
- Michael Hoefler
- Daniel Larimer
- Nicole Liang
- Peter Luo
- Daniel McDonald
- Jihan Park
- Geoffrey Swisher
- Sachin Thaker
- Amanda Wang
- Silas Wang
University High
- Kathryn Lerfald
- Samuel Moody
- Patrick Ryan
- Leo Weimer
Homeschooled
- Ibrahim Musaddequr Rahman
- Amabel Zucker
The above are part of the 56 total seniors across West Virginia who earned their way to honor.
Thirty-one high schools were represented, along with five home-schoolers, including the Mon County contingent.
Morgantown High boasted the most nominees from any school in the state. George Washington High in Charleston followed close with nine of its seniors were named.
Nationally, the semifinalists make up less than 1% of all seniors in the U.S., the organization said.
After the finalists are named in February, they’ll vie for more than $30 million in scholarships.
The National Merit Scholarship program was born of the Cold War in 1955, over concerns the U.S. was lagging intellectually in the world.
Its goals, the organization said, were to encourage young students to develop their full academic and professional potential.
After passage of the 1964 Civil Rights Act, the program expanded with its National Achievement Scholarship Program for high-achieving Black students.
Scholarships from the nonprofit organization are underwritten with its own funds and 400 supporting businesses nationwide.
More than 350,000 have earned the Merit Scholar title since 1955.
Past National Merit finalists, meanwhile, include Microsoft founder Bill Gates, blues guitarist Elvin Bishop and filmmaker M. Night Shyamalan.
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