7 seniors named National Merit semifinalists

Seven Greenhills seniors, chosen from more than 1.4 million students around the country, have been named semifinalists in the 2015 National Merit Scholarship competition.

Nationwide, about 16,000 high school seniors—or less than one percent of American seniors—became semifinalists. Most semifinalists go on to the finals, and those who are ultimately named National Merit Scholars will share about 7,600 scholarships worth a total of about $33 million.

Students enter the program when they take the Preliminary Scholastic Aptitude Test, which serves as a first screening for the competition, operated without taxpayer support by the National Merit Scholarship Corp.

The Greenhills semifinalists are:

• Tanwei Chen
• Frank L. Fazekas
• Karen L. Guan
• John K. Hudson-Humphrey
• Nathan M. Joss
• Alexander C. Reeves
• Alexander Wegrzyn

Those students who become finalists compete for three types of scholarships: a National Merit $2,500 Scholarship, awarded on a state representational basis; one of 1,000 corporate-sponsored Merit Scholarships; or about 4,500 college-sponsored Merit Scholarships.

Announcements of the winners will begin in April and run until July, 2015.