HHS Qualifies Four for
National Merit Program
Four Huntington High School juniors have qualified to enter the 2016 National Merit scholarship program. The group is among a select set of students nationwide to qualify for the academic competition, which began in 1955.
Huntington students Rachel Carpenter, Justin Meyer, Spencer Pashkin and Olivia Stamatatos have all qualified for the highly regarded National Merit program.
“These four young people have shined in the classroom and have taken advantage of countless opportunities offered throughout their years in Huntington,” Superintendent James W. Polansky said. “They continue to pursue their interests and put forth maximum effort regardless of the task at hand. They are truly deserving of consideration for among the highest academic honors bestowed upon a high school student.”
Each one of the teenagers met the required “selection index” of at least 202 to place among the top 50,000 out of 1.5 million participants. About 16,000 will later be named National Merit semi-finalists. The remaining 34,000 will be officially commended for their performance on the Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test.
“These four wonderful students continue in the now established tradition of competing In the National Merit scholarship program,” Principal Carmela Leonardi said. “The teachers and I are very proud of their achievement and expect to hear wonderful news about their advancement in that program.”
The students will learn in September if they are semi-finalists in the program. Semi-finalists will then have an opportunity to continue in the competition which will culminate in the naming of about 8,000 National Merit finalists in February 2016.
Finalists in the program will begin being notified next March if they have been selected to receive a financial scholarship award. With four National Merit qualifiers, Huntington High School has once again demonstrated it is one of the best in the state. There are about 2,000 high schools in New York and 22,000 in the United States.
“I am overjoyed,” Ms. Carpenter said about qualifying for the 2016 competition. “To be able to be considered for such a prestigious scholarship is a great honor.” The teenager plans to study biology in college. “Whether that leads me down the path of biomedical engineering, pediatric oncology or maybe even virology, goodness only knows,” she added.
Current Huntington seniors Charles Beers, Leah Butz, Justin Edgar-McNerney, Caitlin Knowles, Justin LoTurco, Suzanne Petryk and Joseph Saginaw all qualified for this year’s program.
Messrs. Beers and Saginaw along with Ms. Knowles have been named National Merit finalists. Ms. Knowles is Huntington’s Class of 2015 valedictorian while Mr. Saginaw is the salutatorian.