EVANSTON, Ill. — Officials of National Merit Scholarship Corporation (NMSC) on Sept. 13 announced the names of approximately 16,000 semifinalists in the 62nd annual National Merit Scholarship Program.
These academically talented high school seniors have an opportunity to continue in the competition for some 7,500 National Merit Scholarship worth about $33 million that will be offered next spring.
To be considered for a Merit Scholarship award, semifinalists must fulfill several requirements to advance to the finalist level of the competition. About 90 percent of the semifinalists are expected to attain finalist standing, and about half of the finalists will win a National Merit Scholarship.
About 1.6 million juniors in more than 22,000 high schools entered the 2017 National Merit Scholarship Program by taking the 2015 Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test (PSAT/NMSQT), which served as an initial screen of program entrants. The nationwide pool of semifinalists, representing less than one percent of U.S. high school seniors, includes the highest-scoring entrants in each state.
California semifinalists include (alphabetically by city):
El Dorado Hills — Kyoko P. Chew, Oak Ridge High School
Irvine — Kenjiro Tsutsumi, University High School
Los Altos — Connor Akiyama, Los Altos High School
Los Angeles — Mason M. Sakamoto, Windward School
Millbrae — Seiji A. Sakiyama, Mills High School
Newbury Park — Justin B. Kawaguchi and Nicholas Nagamoto, Newbury Park High School
Oakland — Aiko D. Takata, Oakland Technical High School
Pasadena — Gwendolyn K. Hashimoto, Polytechnic High School
Redondo Beach — Alysa Kataoka, Redondo Union High School
Rolling Hills Estates — Davis S. Nagoshi and Kyle K. Watanabe, Palos Verdes Peninsula High School
Sacramento — Victoria S. Tateishi, Mira Loma High School
San Diego — Nainoa M. Nambu, University City High School
San Jose — Ken G. Tanaka, Leland High School; Olivia S. Higa, Notre Dame High School
Santa Monica — Kai A. Hakomori, Santa Monica High School
Saratoga — Matthew G. Miyada, Prospect High School
Torrance — Justin Yokota, Torrance High School
For more information, visit www.nationalmerit.org.