On Sept. 15, the counseling department released the names of 39 National Merit Semifinalists. This number is the highest CHS has seen and is an increase of seven total semifinalists from last year’s.

Those who qualified for this recognition are the following seniors: Radhika Agarwal, David Atkinson, Nicholas Bognanno, Steven Chen, Tiffany Chen, Vivian Chen, David Chiang, Marianna Cooper, Jacob Feigh, Sarah Fields, Paul German, Shokhi Goel, Alexander Graupner, Letitia Li, Kyle Lin, Theresa Lipp, Aaron Melemed, Austin Miller, Lauren Nopporn, Marco Paliza-Carre, Kacie Piedmonte, Stephanie Pitman, Ahmed Razi, Anna Redmond, Bethany Reimbold, Alexander Roth, Zenas Shi, Kevin Song, Ian Stewart, John Stuy, Leon Su, Alex Wallace, Erik Wegner-Clemens, Rebecca Xu, Ivy Yan, Madalyn Yerant, Jane Yin, David Zheng and Yusheng Zhu.

Qualification for is based on junior PSAT/NMSQT scores. According to counselor Bettina Cool, the score must be in the top ½ percent in the nation.

A reception for the Semifinalists’ and their parents will occur on Friday, Sept. 17 during SRT in the Community Room. By Melinda Song <[email protected]>