23 Livingston Students Earn Way Into National Merit Semifinals

LIVINGSTON, NJ — A group of 23 Livingston high school students have earned their way into the semifinals of the 66th annual National Merit Scholarship.

The academically talented seniors will now have a chance to continue in the competition for roughly 7,600 National Merit scholarships, worth more than $30 million that will be offered next spring.

In Livingston, semifinalists included:

LIVINGSTON HIGH SCHOOL

• Chen, Kevin
• Dcosta, Ethan D.
• Desai, Aditya A.
• He, Joyce T.
• Hershey, Jared D.
• Hu, Rachelle
• Jain, Divyank
• Li, Jesse J.
• Meng, Carolyn
• Stepanewk, Leo A.
• Swee, Hannah Z.
• Wang, Edward L.
• Wang, Nicholas Y.
• Wei, Kasey
• Xia, Rosa H.
• Xu, Lucy

RAE KUSHNER YESHIVA HIGH SCHOOL

• Colchamiro, Jacob B.
• Klibanoff, Eliana

NEWARK ACADEMY

• Choy, Elaine
• Inampudi, Annika
• Parelli, Samantha R.
• Weng, Eric
• Zabelo, Andrew H.

More than 1.5 million juniors in about 21,000 high schools entered the 2021 National Merit Scholarship Program by taking the 2019 Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test (PSAT/NMSQT), which served as an initial screen of program entrants.

To become a finalist, the semifinalist and a high school official 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 throughout high school, be endorsed and recommended by a high school official and write an essay to qualify.

Learn more about the annual competition here.

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