Nine PD students are among 62,000 students from across the country to earn academic honors from the College Board’s National Recognition Programs. Additionally, five PD students have been named National Merit Semifinalists.

College Board National Recognition

College Board National Recognition Programs grant underrepresented students with academic honors that can be included on college and scholarship applications and connect students with universities across the country, helping them stand out during the admissions process. Colleges and scholarship programs use these honors to identify students from underrepresented groups through College Board’s Student Search Service.

National African American Recognition Award winners are Naomi Reel and Tamilore Alli. National Hispanic Recognition Award winners are Brianna Haney, Calvin Kraus, Elle Gibbs, Hunter Scott, Huston Dee, Laura Plata, and Stephanie Sanchez-Lopez.

They earned this recognition by excelling on their PSAT/NMSQT, PSAT 10, or AP Exams and in their classrooms. Students who may be eligible have a GPA of 3.5 or higher and have excelled on the PSAT/NMSQT or PSAT 10, or earned a score of 3 or higher on two or more AP Exams; and are African American or Black, Hispanic American or Latinx, Indigenous, and/or attend school in a rural area or small town. Eligible students are invited to apply during their sophomore or junior year, and are awarded at the beginning of the next school year.

National Merit Semifinalists

The National Merit Semifinalists in the Class of 23 are Aubrey Behling, Royce Cummings, Ethan Dillard, William Diman, and Hank Jaffe. 

They became Semifinalists by taking the 2021 Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test. The nationwide pool of Semifinalists represents less than 1 percent of high school seniors.

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.