40 Sarasota students named National Merit Scholarship semifinalists

More than three dozen students at Sarasota County public high schools were named National Merit Scholarship semifinalists by virtue of their performance on the Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test.

About 50,000 students with the highest PSAT/NMSQT scores qualify for the recognition of the 1.5 million who annually take the standardized exam. Of those 50,000, about 16,000 gain recognition as National Merit Scholarship semifinalists, representational of the highest scoring students in each of the 50 states.

Students must take the PSAT by their junior years to be eligible for scholarship consideration for their first year of college.

In February, more than 15,000 semifinalists are notified that they have advanced to finalist standing. By June, about 7,250 finalists learn they have received some measure of scholarship, which include $2,500 National Merit awards or other scholarships sponsored by colleges, universities and corporations.  

In all, 40 Sarasota County semifinalists were named. They are:

Pine View School: Joseph Afflerbach; Thomas Bartlett; Nolan Boucher; Siara Brennan; Felicity Chang; Julian Chauhan; Scott Conrad; Caroline Deacon; Haley Gardner; Juna Hatta-Langedyk; Jacob Koshy; Cole Laudenslager; Nicole Laureno; Kevin Lovo Flores; Sarah Luo; Ryan Macler; Duncan Marmash; Pranav Mayor; Carter McCaa; Ethan Messier; Lora Rini; Andrew Ruffin; Aarna Shah; Clementine Silver Schwartz; Krystal Tran; David Vice; Jonathan Widjaja; Koele Winch; Yifan Zhang; Madison Zoernack.

Riverview High School: Aiden Fitzgibbons; Aidan Hurwitz; Anson Nguyen; Mateo Rizzo; Haylie Smith.

Sarasota High School: Jorge Romero Salgado.

Venice High School: Isabella Gibbs; David O'Grady; Briar Stonehouse; Noah Whelden.