39 high school seniors from Albuquerque Public Schools have been chosen as semifinalists in the prestigious National Merit Scholarship Program. The announcement was made by Albuquerque Public Schools on September 15, 2023. These students were selected based on their exceptional scores in the 2022 Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test.
The list of semifinalists includes students from various high schools in the district. Some of the accomplished individuals are Piia Torgeson from Albuquerque High School, Kaitlyn Eberman, Kevin Huang, and Aileen Ukwuoma from the Early College Academy, Sasha Palko from eCADEMY High School, and Rory Claussen, Iris Eisenman, Manas Kandath, Katelyn Lewis, and Levi Vugrin from Eldorado High School. La Cueva High School has an impressive representation with multiple students making it to the semifinals.
APS Superintendent Scott Elder expressed his pride in these students, stating that their hard work and dedication to academics have paid off. He believes that these students, who are among the top academic performers in the country, will go on to achieve great things in the future.
The National Merit Scholarship Program is highly competitive, with only about one percent of high school seniors nationwide qualifying as semifinalists. In 2022, over 1.3 million juniors from 21,000 high schools participated in the PSAT, with approximately 16,000 students becoming semifinalists. These semifinalists will now have the opportunity to compete for a share of nearly $28 million in National Merit Scholarships.