MOUNT VERNON — Two Mount Vernon City Schools seniors are among the semifinalists for the 2022 National Merit Scholarship Program.
The program selected Beckett Elkins and Ethan Temple from Mount Vernon High School as semifinalists this month.
The academic program, which began in 1955, is both for recognition and scholarships. Placement is based on student scores on the Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test, often referred to as the PSAT.
Both Elkins and Temple have attended the Mount Vernon school district for their entire kindergarten through 12th grade education. Elkins started his schooling at Wiggin Street Elementary, and Temple began at Columbia Elementary.
While they both scored high on the PSAT, they have distinct academic interests.
Temple is drawn to math and science. He takes computer network technology courses through the Knox County Career Center and plans to pursue a related degree in college starting next autumn, he said.
Elkins is most interested in studying French, and is taking an extra French course at Kenyon College, he said. In his free time, Elkins continuously seeks out new ways to improve his French language skills, including through cooking with a French cookbook as well as connecting with people in France online to strike up conversations, he said.
Elkins is also considering the pursuit of diplomacy studies in college.
In addition to academic interests, Temple and Elkins are both athletes. Elkins is on the tennis team, and Temple plays both football and volleyball.
Both juggle full academic and extracurricular schedules with stride.
“I try my best and hope it works,” Temple said.
Both students are in the process of applying to colleges and have a handful of universities they are weighing.
While students can take the PSAT 10 and PSAT 8/9, those exams are not considered for entry to the National Merit Scholarship Program. The test that qualified Temple and Elkins for the program was the PSAT/NMSQT, which is taken during a student’s junior year of high school.
Temple took the PSAT twice, the PSAT 10 and then the PSAT/NMSQT his junior year. He attributed his decision to take the test in the first place, and to study between the two exams to improve his score, to his former English teacher Patricia Jackson.
Elkins took a few practice tests before taking the PSAT/NMSQT his junior year. He was pleasantly surprised by his score, as he had not scored as well on the practice tests, he said.
There are approximately 16,000 semifinalists in the 67th National Merit Scholarship Program, with the number of semifinalists per state proportional to the state’s percentage of the national total of graduating seniors.
Semifinalists have the opportunity to continue in the competition for roughly 7,500 National Merit Scholarships worth nearly $30 million to be offered next spring.
“About 95 percent of the semifinalists are expected to attain finalist standing, and approximately half of the finalists will win a National Merit Scholarship, earning the Merit Scholar title,” according to the semifinalist announcement from the National Merit Scholarship Program on Sept. 15.
Semifinalists must fulfill several requirements to advance to the finalist level of the competition.
The next step for semifinalists is to submit a scholarship application, which includes information about the student’s academic record, participation in school and community activities, leadership abilities, employment and any honors and awards the student has received.
Semifinalists must also write an essay and earn SAT or ACT scores confirming the student’s earlier performance on the PSAT, and obtain a recommendation by a high school official.
Three types of National Merit Scholarships will be offered in the spring: 2,500 National Merit $2500 Scholarships awarded on a state-representational basis; roughly 1,000 corporate-sponsored Merit Scholarship awards provided by corporations and business organizations for finalists who meet their specified criteria (i.e. children of the grantor’s employees or residents of communities where sponsor offices are located); and about 4,000 college-sponsored Merit Scholarship awards for finalists who will attend a sponsor institution.
Finalists are notified in February. National Merit Scholarship winners of 2022 will be announced beginning in April and ending in July.
