Spring-Ford High School Announces 8 National Merit Scholarship Finalists, Most it Has Ever Had

Submitted Photo

National Merit Finalists, Aleena Ataher, Harish Bayana, Siddhant Chavan, Deepak Kejariwal, Ryan Pierce, Aryan Singh, Samuel Thomas and Nicholas Tufillaro

Blogger's Note: The following was provided by the Spring-Ford Area School District.

The Spring-Ford Area School District has announced that eight Spring-Ford Area High School students have been recognized as National Merit Scholarship Program Finalists.

Congratulations to Aleena Ataher, Harish Bayana, Siddhant Chavan, Deepak Kejariwal, Ryan Pierce, Aryan Singh, Samuel Thomas and Nicholas Tufillaro!

"Earlier this year we announced that these ‘elite eight’ were semifinalists, and now they've moved on as a group of eight as finalists," said Spring-Ford Area High School Principal Dr. Patrick Nugent. “This is by far the largest number of Spring-Ford students who have advanced to Finalists.”

These eight students joined more than 1.5 million students in nearly 21,000 high schools to enter the 2020 National Merit Scholarship Program by taking the Preliminary SAT (PSAT) qualifying test in the fall of 2018. 

The nationwide pool of semifinalists, representing less than 1 percent of U.S. high school seniors, includes the highest-scoring entrants in each state. 

Qualifying scores vary from state to state and from year to year, but the scores of all semifinalists are extremely high. More than 15,000 students advanced to finalist standing this month. 

All finalists will now be in the running for National Merit Scholarships.

Spring-Ford Lauds National Merit Scholar Semifinalists and Commended Students

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Scholars and National Merit Scholarship semifinalists were recognized at the Oct. 16, Spring-Ford School Board meeting Monday night.

Blogger's Note: The following was provided by the Spring-Ford School District.

The Spring-Ford Area School District is proud to announce that five Spring-Ford Area High School students have been recognized as National Merit Scholarship Program semifinalists. Congratulations to Anya Aggarwal, Sarah E. Chiaradonna, Megan A. Englert, Kristine Luo and Caitlin McGee.

From left, Megan A. Englert, Caitlin McGee, Kristine Luo,

Sarah E. Chiaradonna and Anya Aggarwal. 

“This is the largest group of commended and semifinalist that we’ve had, ever,” said Spring-Ford Area High School Principal Dr. Patrick Nugent.

“I am very proud of all of our National Merit students, particularly the five ladies recognized as Semi-Finalists, as they represent less than one percent of high school seniors,” Nugent said.

In addition, nine students were named as “Commended Students” in the 2019 National Merit Scholarship Program, and one student was named as a “Scholar” in the 2018-2019 National Hispanic Recognition Program.

Congratulations to Commended Students Hiba F. Hamid, Axel Kalbach, Olivia Kuklentz, Christopher S. Lambert, Ahila S. Moorthy, Alicia J. Platchek, Megha Rajan, Ingrid E.Shu, and Jennifer D. Zajac. Congratulations to Scholar Sophia Feingold.

All students were recognized by the Spring-Ford Board of School Directors at the Oct. 16 meeting.

The National Merit Scholarship Program is an academic competition for recognition and scholarships that began in 1955. High school students enter the National Merit Program by taking the Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test  — which serves as an initial screen of approximately 1.6 million entrants each year — and by meeting published program entry and participation requirements.

In early September, about 16,000 students, or approximately one-third of the 50,000 high scorers, are notified that they have qualified as Semifinalists.

To ensure that academically talented young people from all parts of the United States are included in this talent pool, semifinalists are designated on a state-representational basis. They are the highest scoring entrants in each state.

To be considered for a National Merit Scholarship, semifinalists must advance to finalist standing in the competition by meeting high academic standards and all other requirements explained in the information provided to each semifinalist.

Pottsgrove Confronts Conference Costs

Slightly Fuzzy Photo by Evan Brandt's iPhone.

Pottsgrove Middle School 8th grader Mya Kruger, named a
Fuel to Play 

60 Student Ambassador, finishes delivering
program "swag" to the 

school board Tuesday after
being recognized.

A couple of new things at last night's Pottsgrove School Board meeting.

First of all, I tried some live streaming video of various announcements.

Few took advantage but it's not like I gave a lot of warning. Look for more on my Twitter feed.

Also new was the first conference attendance denied in at least five years.

What made it all the more surprising is that the person denied taxpayer funding was the much-beloved Pottsgrove High School Principal Bill Ziegler.

The discussion about the manner in which conferences are approved, and the benefit of them, and how that benefit is passed on to staff and students, was a bit muddled.

But don't worry, we'll sort it all out in a Mercury article to be published shortly.

In the meantime, enjoy the Tweets in their raw form as they happened at last night's meeting.