The National Merit Scholarship Corporation (NMSC) announced Hood River Valley High School senior Logan “Maui” Glass as a semifinalist in the 60th annual National Merit Scholarship Program. This academically talented high school senior has an opportunity to continue in the competition for some 8,000 National Merit Scholarships worth about $33 million that will be offered next spring.
“I am extremely proud of Maui and what she has accomplished,” said HRVHS Principal Rich Polkinghorn. “Being recognized as a semi-finalist is a testament to the hard work and dedication Maui has put into her education. Being placed within the top 1-percent academically in the state of Oregon is remarkable, she is an amazing young lady.”
About 1.4 million juniors in more than 22,000 high schools entered the 2014 National Merit Scholarship Program by taking the 2013 Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test (PSAT/NMSQT), which served as an initial screen of program entrants. The nationwide pool of semifinalists, representing less than 1-percent of U.S. high school seniors, includes the highest-scoring entrants in each state. The number of semifinalists in a state is proportional to the state’s percentage of the national total of graduating seniors.
As a semifinalist, Maui must have an outstanding academic record throughout high school, be endorsed and recommended by a high school official, write an essay, and earn SAT scores that confirm the student’s earlier performance on the qualifying test. Merit Scholar designees are selected on the basis of their skills, accomplishments, and potential for success in rigorous college studies, without regard to gender, race, ethnic origin, or religious preference.
National Merit Scholarship winners of 2015 will be announced in four nationwide news releases beginning in April and concluding in July.
“I’ve done everything I can for now. It’s just a matter of waiting until April,” Glass said. The scholarship essay prompt was to describe a formative experience in her life.
“I had at least 10 I thought of to choose from, and I went with the (high school) choir trip to the UK when I was a sophomore,” Glass said.
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