Eleven VHHS seniors named National Merit Semifinalists

Eleven Vestavia Hills High School seniors are now National Merit Semifinalists. They were selected from a pool of 1.6 million applicants.

The National Merit Scholarship Corporation released its annual list of semifinalists on Sept. 12. Semifinalists at Vestavia Hills High School include: Colin Bamford, Rachel Bates, Cross Hogland, Bryce Hutchinson, Alison Levine, Nicholas Muscolino, Lauren Nelson, Sydney Nelson, Ritika Samant, Julia Stewart and Walter Zhang.

The students are among a group of 16,000 semifinalists chosen from schools across the U.S. The semifinalists represent less than 1 percent of the 1.6 million students who took the preliminary Qualifying Test in 2018.

Finalists will be announced in early 2019. Those who earn finalist honors will be eligible for approximately 7,500 scholarships worth more than $32 million, according to the National Merit Scholarship Corporation.

Submitted by Vestavia Hills High School