Nine Spartans Named National Merit Semifinalists, 24 Earn Commended Student Honors

Congratulations go to Chris Chang ’25, Lainey Leslie ’25, Kevin Li ’25, Simon Meyers ’25, Susan Moseley ’25, Zach Prager ’25, Alejandro Seal ’25, Audrey Wan ’25, and Claire Wan ’25 who join more than 16,000 other semifinalists in the National Merit Scholarship Corporation (NMSC) 2025 National Merit Scholarship Program.

These academically talented high school seniors now have an opportunity to continue in the competition for around 6,800 National Merit scholarships worth nearly $26 million that will be offered next spring. In order to compete for National Merit scholarships, semifinalists must fulfill several requirements to advance to the Finalist level of the competition. Finalists will be announced beginning in March 2025.

In addition, the NMSC announced its list of 34,000 high performing seniors who have earned the honorary status of Commended Student, which includes 24 St. Stephen’s students. Commended Students are recognized for “the exceptional academic promise demonstrated by their outstanding performance on the qualifying test used for program entry.” They do not continue on in the National Merit Scholarships competition.

Alexander Agrawal ’25

Susannah Alter ’25

Marygrace Beinke ’25

Emmett Brewer ’25

Jordan Carson ’25

Rebecca Cole ’25

Annabel Furlong ’25

Haoyu (Thomas) Guan ’25

Charlie Hubbard ’25

Joo-Eon (John) Kang ’25 

Ella Kim ’25

Shanruo (Lilian) Liu ’25

Anusha Mahbub ’25

Evan McGinnis ’25

Howard Mei ’25

Kieran Mohindra-Green ’25

Joshua Natinsky ’25

Benjamin Patrick ’25

Yifan (Yvonne) Peng ’25

Clara Rogers ’25

Brandon Shaw ’25

Chinemelum (Uche) Ufudo ’25

Watt Wilkinson ’25

Zixi (Jack) Yu ’25

Launched in 1955, the National Merit Scholarship Program is an annual academic competition among high school students for recognition and college scholarships. The program is conducted by National Merit Scholarship Corporation (NMSC®), a not-for-profit organization that operates without government assistance. United States high school students enter the National Merit Scholarship Program by taking the Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test (PSAT/NMSQT®), which serves as an initial screen of over 1.3 million entrants each year, and by meeting published program entry and participation requirements.

To learn more about the National Merit Scholarship program, click here.

Top row (L to R): Zach Prager ’25, Chris Chang ’25, Simon Meyers ’25 , Kevin Li ’25, Audrey Wan ’25, Claire Wan ’25; Bottom row (L to R):  Lainey Leslie ’25, Susan Moseley ’25, Alejandro Seal ’25