Seton Catholic Prep of Chandler recently announced eight students who have earned commended status by the National Merit Scholarship Program.

Seniors Johnny Ash, Zachary Bellin, Conor Byrne, Griffin Charlson, Jude Deg, Ethan Kralik, Max Peterson and Adelyn Sanders each earned commendations by the program for their work on the PSAT exams in 2023.

To earn commended status, a student must be in the top 2% to 3% percent of PSAT test takers nationwide. These eight Sentinels met the criteria and are among the top 50,000 scores in the U.S.

The National Merit Scholarship Program is an annual academic competition among high school students for recognition and college undergraduate scholarships that began in 1955.

The program is conducted by the National Merit Scholarship Corporation, a nonprofit that oversees the SAT, PSAT and other exams.

U.S. high school students enter the National Merit Scholarship Program by taking the Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test (PSAT/NMSQT), which serves as an initial screen of over 1.3 million entrants each year, and by meeting published program entry and participation requirements.

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