National Merit Record!

A school-record 34 Jesuit seniors from the Class of 2027 were recognized Wednesday (Sept. 9) at Convocation by principal Mike Scicchitano for their achievement in the National Merit Scholarship Program.

Of the 34 announced in Convocation, 10 of those achieved the highest recognition as National Merit Semifinalists. The 24 who were honored as National Merit Commended Students is the most ever at Jesuit, as is the 34 total.

National Merit recognition is awarded annually based on the PSAT score, a standardized test administered in October of their junior year. This year, some 16,000 Semifinalists nationwide have been honored from the roughly 1.2 million juniors who take the PSAT.

The 2027 National Merit Semifinalists from Jesuit are: Joseph Acosta, Juan Amador, Austin Boyle, Tyler Frank, Rafael Ludovice, Rhys Marriott, Ethan Smith, Will Tuomy, Evan Voor, and Will Weaver.

Special congratulations to Amador, who achieved a perfect score on his PSAT test!

The 2027 Commended Students from Jesuit are: Ben Beavers, Jack Bedell, A.J. Brazel, Emmanuel Chiaku, Joseph Cusimano, Max Fechtel, Jaime Flores-Sanchez, Oliver Fogarty, Vincent Garcia, Will Guarnieri, Evan Himes, Bryce Holeman, Gavin Kuo, Wilson Marcum, Bobby Miller, Ramil Muraharisetti, Kolt Ohlson, Teddy Reace, Fisher Sadlowski, Mark Schifeling, Justin Slack, Declan Slattery, Jake Stroz, and Brais Tobio.

Scicchitano congratulated them for their achievement and acknowledged the dedicated faculty and staff who have helped form them, while explaining the value and meaning of becoming a National Merit Semifinalist and Commended Student, which opens up scholarship opportunities at universities nationwide.

Afterward, all of the Semifinalists and Commended Scholars, along with their families, gathered for a reception in the Antinori Center for the Arts. 

Over the past 9 years, 87 Jesuit students have achieved Semifinalist recognition, and 123 have been named Commended Students, for a total of 210 recognized by National Merit in the nine years, an average of more than 23 per year.

Over the past four years Jesuit has had 48 Semifinalists, an average of 12 per year.

The PSAT qualifying standard for students to be recognized as Semifinalists can change a little bit annually and varies from state to state. The numbers are often slightly different year-to-year because the National Merit Corporation determines the allocation of Semifinalists based on each state’s percentage of the national total of graduating high school seniors. 

The 16,000 Semifinalists nationwide will continue in the pursuit of about 6,700 National Merit Scholarships worth about $24 million that will be determined in the spring. Semifinalists must fulfill several requirements to advance to the Finalist level of the competition later this school year. About 95% of the Semifinalists attain Finalist standing, and nearly half of the Finalists will receive a National Merit Scholarship and earn the Merit Scholar title.

The percentage of Semifinalists from Jesuit achieving the Merit Scholar title over the past decade is far above 50%.

For much more information about the National Merit Scholarship Program, which dates back to the 1950s, click here. Go to the Facebook page Jesuit High School of Tampa for many more photos.