Seven Costa National Merit Scholarship semifinalists advance to finals

By Kathryn Cross

News Editor

Lizzy Tsuang

Executive News Editor

The National Merit Scholarship Corporation notified seven Costa seniors that they qualified for the semifinals of the National Merit Scholarship Program in a Sept. 9 online National Merit Scholarship Corporation publication.

Seniors Lauren Koch, Mari Nunan, Darby Power, Danit Rich, Joanne Qi, Alessandro Varieschi and Tanner Yamada were the students that qualified for the NMSS semifinals.  The seven Costa students were among 16,000 other students across the country that received this qualification. This year, the cutoff for semifinalists in California was a score of 223 on the Preliminary Scholastic Aptitude Test.

“I was definitely proud of myself and the other semifinalists,” Koch said.  “It was a surprise, and I’m happy about it.”

In order to be one of 7,400 National Merit Scholar finalists, National Merit Scholar semifinalists must first have high academic performance throughout high school, which is demonstrated in the semifinalists’ grade point averages.  National Merit Scholarship finalists will be notified in February, and scholarship winners, who can be rewarded up to $2500, will be announced in the spring.

“This shows how great our students, teachers and community are as a whole,” Costa Principal Dr. Ben Dale said. “Hopefully, [the students] can see some scholarship benefit.”