A group of local high school students from the The Bolles School recently received National Merit Scholarship Program recognition, as well as National Hispanic Recognition Program honors.
Based on their 2015 Preliminary SAT scores,seniors Jared DeMarco, Kunal Kanaparti, Arthur Lee, Cassidy Mizell, Mercer Peek, Alan Perry, Natasha Pillai, Ricky Thames and Journey Wise were named National Merit semi-finalists. They will now contend for the approximately 7,500 scholarships worth more than $33 million offered this spring. According to the program’s organizers, about 90 percent of the semi-finalists are expected to attain finalist standing, and more than half of the finalists will win a scholarship and earn the Merit Scholar title.
Seniors Isabella Array, Andrew Culver, Harrison Dinsbeer, Duncan Evans, Kayla Fender, Claire Gurtler, Ally Hajda, Devon Haskell, Sai Kancha, Vikram Margam and Justin Wolter were named National Merit commended students. Array also received honors from the National Hispanic Recognition Program (NHRP) for being named an outstanding Hispanic/Latino student. The NHRP identifies academically outstanding Hispanic/Latino high school students and honors about 5,000 of the highest-scoring students from more than 250,000 Hispanic/Latinos who take the PSAT/NMSQT during their junior years.
“Upon learning of the changes in the test format, our dedicated faculty collaborated within departments and in the classroom to prepare our students for the PSAT,” said Tyler Hodges, associate head of school. “This year’s results are another example of the pursuit of excellence at The Bolles School.”