Five U-46 seniors named Semifinalists in National Merit Scholarship Program

Five high school seniors in Elgin Area School District U-46 have been named semifinalists in the National Merit Scholarship Program. Bartlett High School's Evan Bulatek, Agilan Gunashankar, Anthony Martin, Ronit Nagarapu, and Jessica Pearce are among about 16,000 semifinalists nationwide.

They will continue in the competition to be awarded one of 7,500 National Merit Scholarships worth more than $30 million that will be offered next spring.

The U-46 students placed among the top 1 percent juniors nationwide who entered the 2022 National Merit Scholarship Program by taking the 2020 PSAT, which served as the initial screening.

To be declared a semifinalist, students must have an outstanding academic record through high school, be endorsed and recommended by a high school official, write an essay, and earn SAT or ACT scores that confirm the student's earlier performance on the qualifying test.

To become a finalist, the students will need to submit a detailed scholarship application including information about their academic record, participation in school and community activities, demonstrated leadership abilities, employment, and honors and awards received.

Drawing from the group of finalists, National Merit Scholarship winners will be announced in stages starting in April 2022.