Thirteen Vestavia Hills High School seniors were recently named National Merit Finalists. The students, Patrick Ball, Hunter Carroll, Daniel Cheng, Drakeson Hu, Shayna Jotani, Carol Li, Jessica Ma, Riley Newsome, Edward Pang, Danielle Qin, Hansen Sha, Anusha Singh,and Arav Singh, were first named among 16,000 semifinalists in the fall. The students entered this year’s competition by taking the 2022 Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test. The nationwide pool of semifinalists represented less than 1 percent of high school seniors in the United States.
“Our faculty and staff at Vestavia Hills High School are so proud of these students,” Principal Tonya Rozell said in a news release. “This achievement is a testament to their extraordinary efforts throughout their years of education and also to their supportive families. This is an outstanding accomplishment that is certain to provide them with numerous unparalleled opportunities in the years to come.”
As National Merit Finalists, these students received some of the highest scores on the PSAT/NMSQT test in the state of Alabama. Finalists must also have an outstanding academic record throughout high school, be endorsed and recommended by their high school principal, and earn SAT or ACT scores that confirm their earlier performance on the qualifying test. By making it to the finals stage, the students will be considered for 7,500 National Merit Scholarships worth more than $32 million. The 2024 National Merit Scholarship winners will be announced in a series of nationwide news releases this spring and summer.