Boise, ID -- (2/27/2017) --  Today Boise School District announced the names of 45 high school students selected as National Merit Finalists in the 62nd annual National Merit Scholarship Program. These academically talented high school seniors now have an opportunity to continue in the competition for some 7,500 National Merit Scholarships worth about $33 million that will be offered this spring.  

The naming of these Finalists comes after the Boise District received word in the fall that half of Idaho's total number of 2017 National Merit Semifinalists (95) were from the Boise School District (47).  Boise School District enrolls about 9% of the total number of public school students in the state of Idaho. 

"We congratulate these students, and their families, for being named National Merit Finalists," said Boise Schools Superintendent Dr. Don Coberly.  "This significant achievement is the result of their hard work and our commitment to providing the advanced, rigorous coursework and the highly skilled teachers students need to earn this national recognition."

Savannah Armstrong Borah High School	Caleb Batten Boise High School	Linnea Boice Boise High School	Hailey Brookins Capital High School
Noah Brown Boise High School	Jackson Centeno Boise High School	Joseph Davies Borah High School	Abbey Erwin Boise High School
Shanaya Fox Capital High School	Winston Gee Boise High School	Elliott Glass Boise High School	Alexander Hamrick Timberline High School
Kathryn Hilburn Boise High School	Spencer Hull Timberline High School	Eleanor Hunt Boise High School	Kevin Jin Boise High School
Hyonoo Joo Timberline High School	Garret Katayama Boise High School	David Kirk Boise High School	Minji Ko Boise High School
Samantha Kraus Borah High School	Elizabeth Lee Boise High School	Daniel Liu Capital High School	Vincent Ma Timberline High School
Thomas Maloney Boise High  School	Sara Matlock Boise High School	Anna McClain-Sims Borah High School	Samuel McEwan Capital High School
Dalton Miller Timberline High School	Angela Ni Timberline High School	Hayden Pickard Boise High School	Theodore Ramey Boise High School
Grace Rosenvall Capital High School	Jennifer Ryu Timberline High School	David Shin Timberline High School	Maxwell Smay Capital High School
Estelle Spanneut Boise High School	Samuel Standal Boise High School	Derek Stein Timberline High School	Ivan Vazquez Capital High School
Paul Vining Boise High School	Megan Wong Boise High School	Anne Xia Boise High School	Andrew Zhang Capital High School
Henry Zhang Capital High School

About the National Merit Scholarship Program

The National Merit Scholarship Program is a United States academic scholarship competition for recognition and university scholarships administered by the National Merit Scholarship Corporation (NMSC), a privately funded, not-for-profit organization based in Evanston, Illinois. The program began in 1955.

Steps in the Competition 

About 1.6 million juniors in more than 22,000 high schools entered the 2017 National Merit Scholarship Program by taking the 2015 Preliminary SAT /National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test (PSAT/ NMSQT ®), which served as an initial screen of program entrants. The nationwide pool of Semifinalists, representing less than one percent of U.S. high school seniors, includes the highest- scoring entrants in each state. The number of Semifinalists in a state is proportional to the state's percentage of the national total of graduating seniors. 

To become a Finalist, the Semifinalist and his or her high school must submit a detailed scholarship application, in which they provide information about the Semifinalist's academic record, participation in school and community activities, demonstrated leadership abilities, employment, and honors and awards received. A Semifinalist must have an outstanding academic record through- out high school, be endorsed and recommended by a high school official, write an essay, and earn SAT ® scores that confirm the student's earlier performance on the qualifying test. 

From the approximately 16,000 Semifinalists, about 15,000 are expected to advance to the Finalist level, and in February they will be notified of this designation. All National Merit Scholarship winners will be selected from this group of Finalists. Merit Scholar designees are selected on the basis of their skills, accomplishments, and potential for success in rigorous college studies, without regard to gender, race, ethnic origin, or religious preference

News Media Contact:

Dan Hollar

Public Affairs Administrator

Boise School District  

(208) 854-4064

[email protected]  

www.boiseschools.org