By: Haley Welsh ’19

Last Friday, a breakfast was held in the Westborough High School cafeteria to honor 28 Westborough seniors as nominees for the National Merit Scholarship program. There were five semi-finalists and 23 commended students from WHS.

The purpose of the National Merit Scholarship Corporation is to recognize students who in the fall of their junior year scored in the top 50,000 students of those who took the Preliminary SAT/ National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test (PSAT/NMSQT).

The semi-finalists who make up about one third of the recognized students are the highest scoring students from each state. In order to become a finalist, they must meet other requirements outlined in their recognition letter.

Commended students make up the other two thirds of recognized students and are recognized for their high achievement, but are not in the competition for the National Merit Scholarship.

The commended students from WHS include Joshua Aronson, Jared Boyer, Pablo Castilla, Jason Chen, Michaela Clancy, Miles Henderson, Ryan Leong, Carol Liu, Stephanie Liu, Meenakshi Mahagaokar, Eshan Sane, Isabelle Seymour, Omar Siddiqui, Ritu Somayaji, Dylan Thaker, David Tigas, Jason Tigas, Bram Townsend, Emma West, Dasha Wolfson, Stav Zeliger, Fangyi (Chloe) Zhao, and Denise Zhong.

The semi-finalists include Brandon Jun, Arina Khotimsky, Shriya Krishna, Corey VanDoren, and Rebecca Walsh.

Pablo Castilla and Alexander Izvolsky were also recognized as part of the National Hispanic Recognition Program.

https://www.nationalmerit.org/s/1758/interior.aspx?sid=1758&gid=2&pgid=424