Seven Chino Valley Unified School District high school seniors have been recognized as semifinalists in the 65th annual National Merit Scholarship competition.

Representing Ayala High School are Oishee Das, Tiffany Liu, Daniel Moon, Asna Tabassum, Anushka Thakker and William Zhang, with Janice Wu representing Chino Hills High School.

Consideration for the program is based on the overall score a student receives on their PSAT/NMSQT exam. Semifinalists are designated on a state-representational basis and are among the highest scoring entrants in each state.

Approximately 16,000 students enrolled at 21,000 high schools nationwide have been selected as semifinalists. From this pool, an estimated 15,000 will be elected as National Merit Scholarship Finalists and will compete for 7,600 scholarships worth more than $31 million. Scholarships will be used to pay for costs associated with college enrollment.

In addition to having an outstanding academic record, a Semifinalist must be endorsed and recommended by a high school official, write an essay, and earn an SAT orACT score that confirms the student’s earlier performance on the qualifying PSAT/NMSQT exam.

National Merit Scholarship winners of 2020 will be announced between April and July. For more information about Chino Valley Unified School district, please visit www.chino.k12.ca.us.