A total of 22 Mesa high school seniors have been named class of 2023 semifinalists in the National Merit Scholarship program.
The semifinalists named Wednesday in the 68th annual National Merit Scholarship program attend Basis School, Dobson High School, Mountain View High School, Red Mountain High School, Skyline High School And Westwood High School.
The Mesa students and the other 16,000 high school seniors who made it to the semifinals have a chance at 7,250 National Merit scholarships worth about $30 million awarded in spring 2023.
Mesa semifinalists are:
• Colin J. Bronson — Red Mountain High School.
• Carolyn S. Brown — Red Mountain High School.
• Tyler B. Covington — Mountain View High School.
• Tanner B. Demassa — Red Mountain High School.
• Jakob K. Dueck — Dobson High School.
• Corinth H. Enemark-Chalk — Red Mountain High School.
• Rylan L. Gardner — Red Mountain High School.
• Rhett J. Gleason — Mountain View High School.
• Christian T. Godfrey — Mountain View High School.
• Frederick M. Hancock — Red Mountain High School.
• Carter Jensen — Westwood High School.
• Marcia C. Keller — Red Mountain High School.
• Danika Kuraica — Skyline High School.
• Alexander B. Luna-Ow — Basis School.
• Arjun C. Nair — Basis School.
• Diti A. Patel — Basis School.
• Alec C. Peng — Red Mountain High School.
• Caleb P. Smith — Red Mountain High School.
• Benedict J. Thomas — Basis School.
• Mylah R. Tigges— Basis School.
• Leslie M. Winkler — Mountain View High School.
• Peter I. Winward — Mountain View High School.
These Mesa seniors and their National Merit peers represent less than 1% of students nationwide selected by program.
Around 390 Arizona high school seniors made it to the semifinals, an increase from last year when only 218 Arizona students qualified.
Selection is based on the student’s academic record, school recommendation, extracurricular activities and score on the Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test.
To advance to the finals, National Merit semifinalists must submit college applications, be endorsed by a high school faculty member, score highly enough on the SAT or ACT test and continue to maintain an excellent academic record.
The majority of National Merit semifinalists are expected to continue to the finals, but only about 7,250 students nationwide will be awarded scholarships.
Students will learn in early next year if they have been selected as finalists, and winners will be announced between April and July 2023.
Three types of scholarships are offered to National Merit winners.
Students who are awarded the National Merit Scholarship receive $2,500 toward their freshman year of college. 2,500 National Merit scholarships are to be awarded to the class of 2023.
College-sponsored scholarships are four-year renewable awards of $500 to $2,000 per school year. The winner must attend the college that is dispersing the award, and there are about 4,000 awards available to 2023 National Merit winners.
Corporate-sponsored awards are the most generous and range from $500 to $10,000 for four years, or single-payment awards ranging from $2,500 to $5,000. About 1,000 such scholarships are expected to be awarded to the class of 2023.
