Eighteen Canyons District students have advanced in a rigorous race to claim one of the country’s most prestigious scholarships for high school seniors.
Students from Alta, Brighton, Corner Canyon and Hillcrest high schools today were announced as semifinalists in the 2019 National Merit Scholar competition.
The high-achieving CSD students join about 16,000 other top scholars who remain eligible to vie for 7,500 scholarships worth $31 million.
The roster of semifinalists was chosen from a field of 1.6 million students at more than 22,000 high schools. The nationwide pool of semifinalists represents fewer than 1 percent of U.S. high school seniors. The number is proportional to the state’s percentage of the national total of graduating seniors.
Candidates for National Merit Scholar awards must write an essay and take a prequalifying test, as well as submit SAT scores. Also required is a detailed scholarship application in which the students must provide academic-record and community-involvement information. The students must note their leadership experiences, voluntarism, employment and any other honors received, too.
The finalists and winners of 2019 scholarships will be announced in the spring
The students and their schools are:
Alta High
- Abigail Hardy
- Joshua Mickelson
- Joshua Pomeroy
Brighton High
- Alex Fankhauser
- Sofia Maw
- Jenna Rupper
Corner Canyon
- Sebastian Lee
- Peter Oldham
Hillcrest High
- Alex Chang
- Anthony Grimshaw
- Bryan Guo
- Saey Kamtekar
- Emily Langie
- Hongying Liu
- Warren McCarthy
- Landon Nipko
- Eric Yu
- Alan Zhao
