7 National Merit Semifinalists named from Elmhurst's York High School

Seven Elmhurst Unit District 205 students have been named as Semifinalists in the 2022 National Merit Scholarship Competition.

York High School seniors who were named Semifinalists are: Andrew Brooks, Jericho Calago, Clark Mahoney, Ryder Maston, Morgan Burnham, Jessica Morey, and Madeleine Fine.

"This serves as another great opportunity to not only celebrate our students' dedication to learning, but to recognize the outstanding work our teachers, counselors, staff and everyone in our school community do to motivate and inspire our students throughout their educational journey and beyond," said Superintendent Dr. Keisha Campbell.

More than 1.5 million high school juniors nationwide entered the 2022 program by taking the Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test (PSAT/NMSQT) in either October 2020 or January 2021. Of these students, 16,000, or less than one percent, qualified as semifinalists by being among the highest-scoring entrants in each state. The number of semifinalists in each state is proportional to the state's percentage of the national total of graduating seniors.

National Merit semifinalists have the opportunity to continue in the competition for some 8,700 scholarships worth more than $40 million, which will be announced in the spring. About 15,000 semifinalists are expected to be notified in February that they have advanced to the finalist round, from which the 2,500 winners of $2,500 National Merit Scholarships will be chosen.

Approximately 1,000 corporate-sponsored Merit Scholarship awards will be given to students who meet the corporations' specific criteria, and about 180 colleges and universities are expected to finance some 4,100 Merit Scholarship awards to finalists who will attend their institutions.