18 Mid-Hudson Valley Seniors Are Merit Semifinalists

MID-HUDSON VALLEY, NY — Students in the mid-Hudson Valley have been named semi-finalists in the 2021 National Merit Scholarship Program. The semi-finalists announced on Wednesday are among 16,000 high-school seniors who will go on to compete for 7,600 National Merit Scholarships worth more than $30 million.

According to a press release from the National Merit Scholarship Program, more than 90 percent of the semi-finalists will be named as finalists. Of those, about half will win a scholarship.

More than 1.5 million students applied for the highly competitive scholarship and the semi-finalists represent less than 1 percent of all high-school seniors in the U.S. For each state, the number of semi-finalists is proportional to that state’s percentage of the total graduating seniors in the country.

NMSC, a not-for-profit organization that operates without government assistance, was established in 1955 to conduct the annual National Merit Scholarship Program.

Scholarships are underwritten by NMSC with its own funds and by about 400 business organizations and higher education institutions that share NMSC’s goal of encouraging the pursuit of academic excellence.

Here are the Mid-Hudson Valley Patch semi-finalists for the scholarship:

HIGHLAND FALLS
JAMES I. O'NEILL H. S.
Gregory, Marie

HOPEWELL JUNCTION
JOHN JAY H. S.
Natesan, Sanjay
Song, Jingxin

KINGSTON
KINGSTON H. S.
Chen, Jason
Fuller, Nolan A.

LA GRANGEVILLE
ARLINGTON H. S.
Chen, Joyce N.
Goncalves, Sofia R.
Holland, Bryce W.

NEW PALTZ
NEW PALTZ CENTRAL H. S.
Demis, Alexander J.
Lai, Matthias S.

NEW WINDSOR
CORNWALL CENTRAL H. S.
Crow, Isabella G.
Gagnon, Kathryn J.

NEWBURGH
NEWBURGH FREE ACADEMY
Johnston, Jacob H.

PAWLING
PAWLING H. S.
Isak, Ditte T.

POUGHKEEPSIE
SPACKENKILL H. S.
Zhu, Alexander

RHINEBECK
RHINEBECK CENTRAL SCHOOL
Dixon, Cole G.

WALLKILL
WALLKILL H. S.
Warren, Conor R.

WAPPINGERS FALLS
ROY C. KETCHAM H. S.
Duchi, Emily N.

To become a finalist, students and a high school official must submit a detailed application. The application must contain information about a student’s academic record, leadership abilities, the honors and awards they’ve received and more.

Students will find out in February whether they make it to the finalist stage. National Merit Scholarship winners of 2021 will be announced in four waves beginning in April and concluding in July.