Washoe County School District officials this week said 15 high school students in the region have been named semifinalists in the 2024 National Merit Scholarship Program.
The students are among 16,000 high school juniors nationwide—of more than 1.3 million total students in about 21,000 schools—nominated for the competition, which will award more than $28 million in scholarships next spring. Less than 1% of high school juniors qualify for the program’s semifinals.
WCSD students who can move forward in the competition are:
- Reza Rahimzadeh, Academy of Arts, Careers & Technology
- Logan Kunze, Damonte Ranch High School
- Nikhil Chitturi, Galena High School
- Kailey Shapiro, Galena High School
- Maybeline Tucker, Galena High School
- William Jones, Incline High School
- Aidan Schneider, Robert McQueen High School
- Alexander Choi, Reno High School
- Dakota Geiger, Reno High School
- Derek Hanson, Reno High School
- Meric Kavlicoglu, Reno High School
- Anthony Yun, Reno High School
- Miles Zeller, Reno High School
- Victoria Nguyen, Earl Wooster High School
- Elijah Moore, Procter R. Hug High School
Each semifinalist must submit a detailed scholarship application that includes information on academics, school and community activities, leadership abilities, employment and awards and honors. A high school official must also endorse students, write an essay and earn high marks on their SAT or ACT exams.
Students will find out if they’re a finalist in February 2024 and go on to compete for one of 2,500 National Merit Scholarships or one of the more than 4,600 corporate- and college-sponsored Merit Scholarships.
Source: WCSD.
