TOWSON, MD—Twenty-one Baltimore County Public Schools students from nine high schools have been named semifinalists in the 66th annual National Merit Scholarship Program coordinated by the National Merit Scholarship Corp.

The honored students are:

Catonsville High School
Nikitha C. Mupparaju
Sean O. Nowak

Dulaney High School
Serena Chen
Grace Cong
Kristine C. Xie
Steven H. Zhang

Eastern Technical High School
Lena Wang

George Washington Carver Center for Arts and Technology
Elise T. Kylin
Lucas A. LaBuff

Hereford High School
Rishi R. Anand

Loch Raven High School
Alexander M. Spielman

Pikesville High School
Jacob D. Lane
Benjamin S. Matz

Towson High School
Shuming A. Mao
Daniel J. Melia
Noah J. Rich
Adam K. Viazanko
Eleuthera Wang
Tyler N. Yup

Western School of Technology and Environmental Science
Shaheer A. Imam
Benjamin K. Smith

“Congratulations to these outstanding BCPS students for their academic achievement and to the teachers, families, and administrators who taught, challenged, and supported them,” said BCPS Superintendent Dr. Darryl L. Williams. “These students represent schools from across our district and represent the potential we see every day in all of our students, in all of our schools. Recognitions such as this inspire all members of the BCPS family to set and reach higher goals.”

More than 1.5 million juniors in about 21,000 high schools entered the 2021 National Merit Scholarship Program by participating in the 2019 Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test (PSAT/NSMQT®). The highest scoring entrants in each state create the national pool of 16,000 semifinalists, which represents less than 1 percent of high school seniors in the nation. Most semifinalists advance to the finalist level (based on their academic records, recommendations and SAT scores) and compete for 7,600 National Merit Scholarships.

Through its longstanding partnership with the College Board, which administers the PSAT/NSMQT, BCPS provides funding so that all students in Grade 9 can take the PSAT 8/9, all students in Grades 10 and 11 can take the PSAT/NSMQT, and all Grade 11 students can take the SAT – all at no charge to the students or their families. The PSAT test provides practice for the SAT and provides BCPS educators with important assessments of student strengths and challenges. Due to the pandemic, however, there may be changes in the testing offered during the 2020-2021 school year.