Prince William County Public Schools

Congratulations to the 2021 National Merit Scholarship Program Semifinalists from PWCS high schools. Following are this year's semifinalists:

• William R. Hart, Charles J. Colgan, Sr. High School
• Abigail J. Lacuesta, Patriot High School
• Zayvinn Lin, Charles J. Colgan, Sr. High School
• Ashish Pothireddy, Osbourn Park High School
• Lori A. Shoemaker, Osbourn Park High School
• Rebecca B. Wisnewski, Patriot High School.

In addition to these students, the following Prince William County students, who now attend the Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology also qualified:

• Nedah Z. Ahmad, previous student at Ronald Wilson Reagan Middle School
• Joel Eldo, previous student at Ronald Wilson Reagan Middle School
• Sophia J. Evanisko, previous student at Bull Run Middle School
• Catherine Granum, previous student at Benton Middle School
• Ethan T. Nguyen, previous student at Reagan Wilson Reagan Middle School
• Avik Rao, previous student at Bull Run Middle School

Students entered the 2021 National Merit Scholarship Program by taking the 2020 Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test (PSAT/NMSQTÒ), which serves as an initial screening. Each semifinalist represents less than one percent of high school seniors in the U.S. Semifinalists are among the highest-scoring entrants in each state.

The National Merit Scholarship Corporation (NMSC) announced 16,000 semifinalists in the 66th annual National Merit Scholarship Program. NMSC is a non-profit organization, that was established in 1955 to organize and execute the annual National Merit Scholarship Program.

NMSC offers three types of National Merit Scholarships. Finalists will compete for one of 2,500 National Merit $2,500 scholarships that will be awarded on state-representational basis. An estimated 1,000 corporate-sponsored merit scholarship awards will be provided by 220 corporations and businesses to finalists who meet their specified criteria, and another 4,100 college-sponsored merit scholarship awards will be granted by approximately 180 colleges and universities to finalists who will attend the sponsor institution. For more information on the NMSC and the National Merit Scholarship Program, please visit their website.