The National Merit Scholarship is an annual, national program that recognizes students who perform well academically. Two of the candidates attend THS.

“The National Merit Scholarship program is a program that recognizes students who performed well on the PSAT,” career and college counselor Stacey Nielsen said.

One of the candidates is senior Abby Manne who has a high GPA and a perfect score on her ACT.

“While taking the test, I was definitely focused on continuing answering questions, and getting done on time, because that’s something I’ve struggled with before,”  Manner said.

Another candidate for the Merit Scholarship is Madison Foster who also has a high GPA and ACT score.

“Tip for people who are interested in the Merit Scholarship, I would say probably study some. Take the PSAT as a 10th grader so that you qualify automatically, and that way you already know kind of what the test is like,” Foster said.

The Merit Scholarship is, “focused on juniors, [the top] one percent of scorers are invited then to apply as a National Merit finalist. Those semifinalists have to complete additional questions, a whole application process and letter recommendation all of that. Then they will find out later in the spring who is selected as a National Merit scholar, then that scholarship can lead to at a lot of colleges a full rides,” Neilsen said.

The award will be announced February 8, 2021. The other two WSD candidates for the Merit Scholarship are Andrew Sante from Liberty High School, and Ethan Dunsworth from Holt High School.

*All information from the Wentzville School district website