Nine members of Providence Day School’s Class of 2022 have been named National Merit Scholarship Program Semifinalists in the 67th annual National Merit Scholarship Program. Seniors Phoebe Brannan, Liam Eustis, Rachel Hobby, Hal Jones, Reid Laughton, Audrey Martin, Claire Miller, Declan Peters, and Sydney Stang are among the 16,000 students to become Semifinalists by taking the 2020 Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test. The nationwide pool of Semifinalists represents less than 1% of high school seniors.

“I'm so happy for and proud of our nine semifinalists,” said Jack Whelan, Director of College Guidance. “COVID really disrupted all standardized testing last fall, so the fact that these students performed so well in less-than-perfect conditions is a real tribute to their talent and resilience.”

Semifinalists have an opportunity to continue in the competition for 7,500 National Merit Scholarships worth nearly $30 million that will be offered next spring. Approximately 15,000 Semifinalists are expected to advance to the Finalist level and will be notified of this designation in February.

The program is a U.S. academic scholarship competition administered by National Merit Scholarship Corporation, a privately funded, not-for-profit organization. National Merit Scholarship winners of 2022 will be announced beginning in April and concluding in July. These scholarship recipients will join more than 362,000 other distinguished young people who have earned the Merit Scholar title.

From left to right: Declan Peters, Reid Laughton, Liam Eustis, Rachel Hobby, Sydney Stang, Claire Miller, Phoebe Brannan, Hal Jones. Not pictured: Audrey Martin