National Merit Honors

Two seniors at Jesuit High School have been named National Merit Semifinalists, Jesuit principal Barry Neuburger announced at a special Convocation ceremony on Monday (Sept. 18).

Matthew Tamashiro and Joshua Cruz are among the approximately 16,000 Semifinalists nationwide in the prestigious National Merit Scholarship Program. Semifinalists are selected based on their PSAT scores, a standardized test administered their junior year.

The qualifying standard on the PSAT for Florida students to be Semifinalists has been raised the past three years from 214 to 217 to 219 this year. Over the past five years, Jesuit has had 21 Semifinalists.

A total of 12 Jesuit seniors, in addition to the two National Merit Semifinalists, tested in the 99th percentile on the PSAT. They are: Patrick Eberly, Jack Giannetti, Eric Irani, Hyoung Kim, Eric Navar, Diego Perez, Tommy Pham, Sam Sands, James Sheridan, Luke Surak, Nicholas Verdugo, and Jordan Vivero.

The four Semifinalists continue in the pursuit of 7,500 National Merit Scholarships worth about $32 million that will be determined in the spring. Semifinalists must fulfill several requirements to advance to the Finalist level of the competition. About 90 percent of the Semifinalists attain Finalist standing, and more than half of the Finalists will win a National Merit Scholarship, earning the Merit Scholar title.