St. Stephen’s celebrates its seniors recognized nationally for academic excellence.

Congratulations to Abi Castañeda ’27, Abby Cohen ’27, Aaron Gao ’27, James Huang ’27, Mia Ip ’27, Grace Oh ’27, Harini Senthil Kumar ’27, April Song ’27, Levi Tvrdik ’27 and Alan Yang ’27, who join more than 16,000 semifinalists in the 72nd annual National Merit Scholarship Program. Representing less than 1% of high school seniors across the nation, these students qualified through their performance on the 2025 Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test (PSAT/NMSQT). The program honors individual students demonstrating exceptional academic talent and readiness for rigorous college studies.

These academically talented high school seniors now advance to compete for roughly 6,700 National Merit Scholarships worth nearly $24 million, which will be awarded next spring. To be considered for a National Merit Scholarship award, semifinalists must complete a detailed scholarship application, maintain an outstanding academic record and submit confirming SAT or ACT scores. Finalists will be notified in February 2027, with scholarship offers following in the spring.

Founded in 1955, the National Merit Scholarship Program is an annual academic competition offering high school students recognition and college scholarships. The program is conducted by National Merit Scholarship Corporation (NMSC), an independent nonprofit operating without government assistance.

Learn more about the National Merit Scholarship program.