Jacobs Senior Semifinalist for National Merit Scholarship

senior Elisah J. Vanden Bussche recently was named a semifinalist in the 57th annual National Merit Scholarship Program. 

She joins about 16,000 other semifinalists from high schools across the country who will continue in the competition for 8,300 National Merit Scholarships worth more than $34 million.

More than 1.5 million juniors in 22,000 high schools across the country entered the 2012 National Merit Scholarship Program by taking the 2010 Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test. This test, served as an initial screen of program entrants. The nationwide pool of semifinalists represents less than 1 percent of U.S. high school seniors and 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 final level of the competition. Participants must have an outstanding academic record throughout high school, be endorsed and recommended by their high school principal and earn SAT scores that confirm the student’s earlier performance on the qualifying test.

Finalists will be announced this coming spring.

Editor's note: If you are Elisah or her parents and would like to submit a photo, please email it to savannah.ziegelbauer@patch.com.