Sixteen Belen Jesuit Preparatory School seniors have been named Commended Students by the National Merit Scholarship Corporation and three of those have advanced to the semifinals.
The 2018 National Merit Scholarship Semifinalists are Ivan Barral, Andres Dones, and Conner Yurkon. These academically talented high school seniors have an opportunity to continue in the competition for some 7,500 National Merit Scholarships worth more than $32 million that will be offered next spring.
“These students are leaders in their class and have worked very hard to achieve such an honor,” said school principal Jose E. Roca. “Their dedication to their academics and community exemplify our motto of being men for others. We wish Ivan, Andres and Conner luck as they continue in the process and congratulate the other 13 young men that were commended.”
The commended students are: Ivan Barral, Andrew Burch, Daniel Corrada, Andres Dones, Ricardo Espina, Daniel Fager, Thomas Gallinar, Javier Guerrero, Eduardo Hernandez, Justin Izquierdo, Gabriel Krikorian, Jorge Moscoso, Allan Navarro, Deiter Prussing, Roger Torres and Conner Yurkon.
The National Merit Scholarship Program is an academic competition for recognition and scholarships that began in 1955. High school students enter the National Merit Program by taking the Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test (PSAT/NMSQT) — which serves as an initial screen of approximately 1.6 million entrants each year — and by meeting published program entry and participation requirements.
