Twenty-three PCS students named National Merit Scholarship semifinalists

Sept. 16, 2019

Twenty-three Pinellas County Schools students have been named semifinalists in the 65th annual National Merit Scholarship Program, which is conducted by the National Merit Scholarship Corporation.

The 23 students are among approximately 16,000 semifinalists. The students will compete with other semifinalists for prestigious National Merit Scholarships worth about $31 million. The nationwide pool of semifinalists makes up less than one percent of all high school students. The students attained semifinalist’s stature through the scores they attained on the 2018 Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test (PSAT/NMSQT).

The semifinalists and the schools they attend are:

East Lake High

Bennett A. Carollo, Noelle Esposito, Kelsey A. Robinson

Lakewood High

Ethan N. Nguyen, Rajat Patwari

Largo High

Michael A. Marcotte, Joshua R. Mott, Charles B. Phillips, Haidyn C. Sekeres

Palm Harbor University High

Salma Alandary, Cailey M. Carpenter, Mateusz Plaza, Maya Srinivasan, Vipin Suren, Matthew D. Werneken

St. Petersburg High

Eleanor J. Anderson, Paul G. Fernandez, Aidan Higgs, Sophia H. Hirst, Rivers C. Lenholt, Jack R. McKyton, Sebastian Newell

Tarpon Springs High

Alexander C. Theophilopoulos