87 National Merit Semifinalists for Gunn and Palo Alto High Schools
The National Merit Scholarship Program has announced their semifinalists for the 2010 Competition. Palo Alto Unified School District has a total of 87 students being recognized, 46 for Paly and 41 for Gunn, and moving on to compete to be finalists. This represents over ten percent of the District’s Class of 2010. “This is an extraordinary number of students to be honored with this recognition from one community,” Superintendent Kevin Skelly said. “It will be interesting, indeed, to see what these students choose for their futures.”
These academically talented high school seniors have an opportunity to continue in the competition for some 8,200 National Merit Scholarships worth more than $36 million. Semifinalists must fulfill several requirements to advance to the Finalist level of the competition.
National Merit Scholarship Corporation (NMSC), a not-for-profit was established in 1955 specifically to conduct the annual National Merit Scholarship Program. Scholarships are underwritten by NMSC with its own funds and by approximately 500 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.