The National Merit Scholarship Program is an academic competition for recognition and scholarships for students. High school students enter the National Merit Program by taking the PSAT.

To qualify, a high school student must take the PSAT, a test which serves as an initial screen of approximately 1.5 million entrants each year and by meeting the participation requirements.

Senior Daniel Moore has been nominated as a finalist for the National Merit Scholarship Program. 15,000 students were promoted from the semifinalist to finalist standing. Between March and June, 8,000 of these students will be selected as National Merit Scholars to receive various scholarship awards.

School Academic Advisor, Michelle Warkentin is very proud of Moore and for all he has accomplished, as well for coming so far in the Academic Competition.

“Daniel is a high achieving, extremely motivated student who has proven his academic abilities in both his test scores, high standing in his class ranking and superior GPA,” Warkentin said. “He also has also demonstrated the motivation and ability to pursue a career as an engineer and has already been accepted into the engineering program at Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo, one of the top engineering programs in the country!”

Warkentin hopes many more students at FC can accomplish and aspire to compete for the National Merit Scholarship Competition, but they must meet a number of qualifications.

“In order to be selected as a National Merit Scholar winner, he must meet the following requirements: all winners of Merit Scholarship awards (Merit Scholar designees) are chosen from the Finalist group, based on their abilities, skills and accomplishments?without regard to gender, race, ethnic origin or religious preference.”

There is a long process in order for one to be nominated for this scholarship, which shows Moore’s distinction above most other students.

“A variety of information is available for NMSC selectors to evaluate” Wakentin said. “The finalist’s academic record, information about the school’s curricula and grading system, two sets of test scores, the high school official’s written recommendation, information about the student’s activities and leadership and the finalist’s own essay are part of the information submitted.”

Moore is very happy to have been named a finalist in the competition, especially since it has given him more opportunities for aid in paying for college.

“I’m pretty excited,” Moore said. “I think it’s a pretty cool opportunity to represent FC, and receiving extra scholarships opportunities for college, and not paying that much for college tuition would be very beneficial, in every way.”

Moore has sent applications to Cal Poly, University of Southern California (USC), University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) and University of California, Irvine (UCI) for a major in mechanical engineering.

For more information, read the Feb. 18 article, XXII Olympic Winter Games held in Sochi, Russia (PODCAST UPDATE).

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