This year, a record breaking number of Alachua County Public School (ACPS) students were named National Merit Scholarship finalists and 27 of those 42 have won the coveted National Merit Scholarship (NMSC). In addition, one of the students has won two of the scholarship for their outstanding academic achievements.

According to a press release put out by ACPS , “NMSC has announced the final group of scholarship winners for 2023. Each year the organization awards scholarships funded by corporations, colleges/universities and the NMSC itself to students selected as finalists in the prestigious competition.”

In order to be a National Merit Finalist, students must meet several benchmarks including the first step which is to qualify as a semifinalists. “Which means earning among the nation’s highest scores on the Preliminary SAT/National Qualifying Test (PSAT/NMSQT), which is taken by more than 1.5 million students annually and measures a student’s critical reading, math problem-solving and writing abilities. About 16,000 students are named semifinalists each year,” according the the ACPS press release.

In order to become an official finalist, those semifinalists must earn high scores on the SAT. In addition, they must also submit applications with the NMSC  highlighting their other academic achievements, awards and honors and leadership activities within their school and community. Obtaining teacher recommendations and completing an an essay are also a required portion of the application.

Congratulations to all the students on the amazing achievements!

The finalists, with scholarship winners noted with an asterisk (*), are as follows:

Buchholz High School: Himal Bamzai-Wokhlu, Avery Bernstein, Hannah Ciupe*, Samuel Cohen*, Nicholas Dang, Rishi Gadikota*, Angela Gao, Tyler Holland*, Ahan Mishra, Andrey Nikitin*, Aditya Vardhan Pasumarti*, Abhinav Pothuri*, Nicole Qian, McKayla Ro*, Tucker Shea, Anwyn Tanner*, Isabelle Tseng, Zachary Urbine*, Sophia Vernon*, Zach Xiao, William Xu, Carolynn Zhao*, Jonathan Zheng, Kevin Zheng**

Eastside High School: Maryanne Armstrong*, Rebekah George*, Jakob Gorham, Claire Kuntz*, Elizabeth Matthias*, Linda Mentz, Hirbod Sargeran*, Maui Schwartz, Maggie Yan*, Benjamin Zou

Gainesville High School: Harold Bishop*, Jacob Calloway*, Cormac Davis, Michelle Han*, Nicholas Hirsch*, Siya Patel*, Jake Qiu*, Charles Ye*.

To learn more about the National Merit Scholarship Program, click HERE.

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