Fourteen Spring Valley High School students who are showing exceptional academic ability and potential for success in rigorous college studies are competing for National Merit Scholarships. They are among 16,000 semifinalists in the 69th annual National Merit Scholarship Program.

High school juniors entered the 2025 National Merit Scholarship Program by taking the 2024 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.

Spring Valley’s National Merit Scholarship Semifinalists are Henry Berg, Max Berg, Lee Dillon, Mary Ann Gardiner, Anagha Gowda, Emna Gudhami, Beverly Holton, Ibrahim Jatoi, Srianeesh Kalva, Fionn O’Connor, Vianne Phan, Zahi Siddique, Hayden Thorpe and Ali Wallam.

About 95 percent of the semifinalists are expected to attain finalist standing, and approximately half of the finalists will win a National Merit Scholarship, earning the Merit Scholar® title.

Three types of National Merit Scholarships will be offered in the spring of 2025. Every finalist will compete for one of 2,500 National Merit® $2500 Scholarships that will be awarded on a state-representational basis. About 950 corporate-sponsored Merit Scholarship awards will be provided by approximately 180 corporations and business organizations for finalists who meet their specified criteria, such as children of the grantor’s employees or residents of communities where sponsor plants or offices are located. In addition, about 160 colleges and universities are expected to finance some 3,800 college-sponsored Merit Scholarship awards for finalists who will attend the sponsor institution.