24 Rye-Area Students Named 2018 Merit Semifinalists

RYE, NY — Some 225 Hudson Valley residents are among 16,000 National Merit Scholarship Semifinalists. The scholarship organization announced the names Wednesday in the 63rd annual National Merit Scholarship Program. Included on the list are students from Rye High School and Rye Country Day School.

The students named represent fewer than 1 percent of U.S. high school seniors.

They have an opportunity to continue in the competition for some 7,500 National Merit Scholarships worth more than $32 million that will be offered next spring. About 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. (SIGN UP: Get Patch's Daily Newsletter and Real Time News Alerts.)

Scholarships are underwritten by NMSC with its own funds and by approximately 420 business organizations and higher education institutions that share NMSC's goals of honoring the nation's scholastic champions and encouraging the pursuit of academic excellence.

Here are the Hudson Valley Semifinalists for 2018 from Rye High School and Rye Country Day School:

RYE
Rye Country Day School

• Chen, James Y.
• Colin, Sarah R.
• Esquivel Losada, Matias
• Farrell, Joseph P.
• Hackett, Alexander R.
• Hotsuki, Mia
• Mandell, Georgia A.
• Pang, Mindy C.
• Schnall, Jason C.
• Shabecoff, William I.
• Shehadeh, Nishan
• Tallis, Nicholas
• van Paasschen, Cecilia A.
• Yang, Jialin

Rye High School

• Cich, Nicholas J.
• Eckstein, Sonia I.
• Hsu, Cynphnie
• Kirk, Alexandra
• Kuster, Benjamin
• Langer, Katherine J.
• Lloyd, Jonathan
• Monaghan, Thomas S.
• Noga, Alexander J.
• Srivastava, Pranjal

Image via Shutterstock.