Page 4 THE VILLADOM TIMES IV • October 9, 2013 Area Local students are National Merit Semifinalists Students at Ramsey High School and Mahwah High School have been named National Merit Semifinalists in the 2014 competition. Dr. Michael J. Thumm, principal of Ramsey High School, announced that Christina Long and Courtney Por- fido are the semifinalists from his district; John P. Pascale, principal of Mahwah High School, announced that Jeffrey A. Meli is the semifinalist from his district. These three honorees are among the approximately Left: Courtney Porfido and Christina Long. (Courtesy of Keith Nixon, Ramsey HS.) Right: Guidance Counselor Stacy Mandel, Jeffrey A. Meli, Mahwah High School Principal John P. Pascale. 16,000 students named to this status. These academically talented young people now have an opportunity to continue in the competition for approximately 8,000 Merit Scholar- ship awards, worth about $31 million that will be offered next spring. Juniors in some 20,000 high schools in the United States entered the 2014 program by taking the 2012 Preliminary Qualifying Test (PSAT/NMSQT), which served as an ini- tial screen of more than one million program entrants. The highest scorers in each state, representing fewer than one percent of the state’s high school graduating class, were designated semifinalists. The next step for Semifinalists is to fulfill requirements to advance to finalist standing, a prerequisite to consid- eration for a Merit Scholarship award. To become final- ists, semifinalists must have an outstanding high school academic record, be endorsed and recommended by their school principal, and submit SAT scores that confirm their earlier qualifying test performance. Semifinalists and a school official must submit a detailed scholarship appli- cation, which also includes the student’s self-descriptive essay, and information about the semifinalist’s participa- tion and leadership in school and community activities. Approximately 90 percent of semifinalists are expected to attain finalist standing, and more than half of the final- ists go on to win National Merit Scholarships.