Every year, over 1.5 million high school students take the PSAT/NMSQT test in an attempt to qualify for the National Merit Scholarship program. State semifinalists are announced and then finalists are recognized and receive scholarships.

24 high school students from the Rockwood School District have been announced as National Merit semifinalists. 13 of these students are from Lafayette.

These students are as follows: seniors Elizabeth Denn, Danielle Lamar, Richard Lu, Christopher Moody, Eric Moser, Dallin Robinson, Tyler Romero, Jay Shapiro, Brandon Sinanan, Deck Slone, Jessica Zadoks, Paroma Zaman and Jacob Zerr.

Students are proud of themselves, and some are surprised they have been recognized as semifinalists.

When asked how it feels to receive this recognition, Robinson said, “It feels good. I didn’t realize I could be recognized for this.”

According to the Rockwood School District website, “To become a Finalist, a Semifinalist must have an outstanding academic record, be endorsed and recommended by a school official, and earn SAT scores that confirms their qualifying test performance.”

Around 15,000 semifinalists are expected to advance to the finalist level.