Four FHSD students selected as National Merit Finalists

The National Merit Scholarship Corporation has named four Forest Hills students as finalists in the annual National Merit Scholarship Program, an honor less than two percent of the country’s high school students achieve. 

The finalists, McKenzie Halpert, Audra Stump, McCoy Reynolds and Serra Tuzun, are now eligible to receive one of approximately 7,500 National Merit Scholarships that total $31 million.

Over 1.5 million juniors in about 21,000 high schools entered the 2020 National Merit Scholarship Program by taking the 2018 Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test, which served as an initial screen of program entrants.

To become a finalist, a semifinalist must have an outstanding academic record throughout high school, be recommended by the school principal and earn SAT scores that confirm their earlier qualifying test performance. All students must also submit a detailed scholarship application, a self-descriptive essay and information about participation and leadership in school and community activities. Only 15,000 students were named National Merit Finalists this year.

The FHSD finalists were recognized at the February 24th Forest Hills Board of Education meeting. Finalists, or merit scholars, will be announced in the spring.