Ten Half Hollow Hills Students Named National Merit Semifinalists

The Half Hollow Hills Central School District is proud to announce that a total of ten students from the district, five from High School East and five from High School West, have been named Semifinalists in the 65th annual National Merit Scholarship Program. These ten academically talented students join the approximately 16,000 Semifinalists nationwide who have an opportunity to continue in the competition for some 7,600 National Merit Scholarships worth more than $31 million that will be offered next spring.

The students who earned this prestigious honor from Half Hollow Hills are High School West’s Miles Kim, Brett Levinton, Poojan Pandya, Effat Rahman and Jocelyn Ye; and High School East’s William Banai, Melissa Chen, Jay Nagpal, Shreya Suneja and Tong Ye.

“Our district is very proud of the students who have earned their spots as Semifinalists in this prestigious academic competition,” said Dr. Patrick Harrigan, the superintendent of schools in Half Hollow Hills. “We wish them all luck as they continue their work on the next steps of this rigorous process to compete for the National Merit Scholarships.”

Over 1.5 million juniors in about 21,000 high schools entered the 2020 National Merit Scholarship Program by taking the 2018 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.

To be considered for a Merit Scholarship award, Semifinalists must fulfill several requirements to advance to the Finalist level of the competition. Working with a high school official, they must submit a detailed scholarship application that provides information on their academic record, participation in school and community activities, demonstrated leadership abilities, employment, and honors and awards received. Over 90 percent of the Semifinalists are expected to attain Finalist standing, and about half of the Finalists will win a National Merit Scholarship, earning the Merit Scholar title.

National Merit Scholarship winners of 2020 will be announced in four nationwide news releases beginning in April and concluding in July. These scholarship recipients will join some 345,000 other distinguished young people who have earned the Merit Scholar title.

An education-oriented community with high academic expectations, the Half Hollow Hills Central School District is located in a residential area of 50,000 people in the central part of Long Island, approximately 40 miles from New York City. Providing for the education of almost 8,000 students, the school district has five elementary schools, two middle schools and two high schools. Half Hollow Hills High Schools are fully accredited by the New York State Department of Education. The district is committed to providing all students with opportunities to excel in academics, athletics and the arts.