Samo students honored with national merit scholarships

On Oct. 7, the Samo students who received semifinalist and commended status for their performance on the 2018 PSAT were honored at a congratulatory dinner in the Samo library to celebrate their success.Eight Samo students are semifinalists in receiving this scholarship and an additional 16 were recognized by the college board as commended students. Ireland Neville (’20), Michael Vigman (’20), Rex Evans (’20), Weston Kerekes (’20), Lily Stern (’20), Matt Sasaki (’20), Sammy Sasaki (’20) and Kiana Williams (’20) are Samo’s eight 2019-20 semifinalists.Every year, 7,600 students across America receive merit scholarships, a scholarship given to the top 1% of each state based on PSAT scores. Although more than 1.5 million highschoolers take the preliminary SAT (PSAT), only 0.005% are eligible for these scholarships. To be recognized and invited to attend the dinner, students needed to receive an average score of 1470. Evans was one of the students to attend the dinner and received a notably high PSAT score.“I’m honored and grateful for the opportunity to get a scholarship,” Evans said.Furthermore, Evans mentioned practice tests are a great way for students who are taking the PSAT to prepare.While taking the PSAT, juniors in highschool test for two hours and 45 minutes. They are scored on three sections: reading, writing/language and math and receive a score out of 1520. Although Semifinalist Neville recognizes the honor in being a national merit scholar, he also believes standardized testing does not define him or his peers.“I am not 30 points smarter than this person, 20 points cooler than those people or 100 points more hype than those people. I am smart because of the relationships I have created,” Neville said.The National Merit Scholarship is rarely awarded, and when it is, the recipients are in the top one percentile of all test-takers. The eight Samo semifinalists are currently being considered for finalist status. In light of the upcoming PSAT next week, Samo juniors can look to these students’ accomplishment as motivation to aim for the same goal. College counselor Rosa Mejia encourages the current juniors to take the upcoming Oct. 16 PSAT seriously; the results will determine whether or not they qualify for the scholarship. The test is also great practice for the real SAT, which many juniors will be taking within the next year. “Do as best as possible. This is a great opportunity to practice for the real test,” Mejia said.