Leigh Charlton, Reporter
@leighcourant
On an otherwise ordinary school day last year, the vast majority of New Canaan High School juniors brought little to school other than their sharpened No. 2 pencils and a calculator. It was the day of the PSAT, and few knew what to expect. Over a year later, NCHS is home to 18 National Merit Commended Students and six National Merit Semifinalists, all of whom qualified through the 2014 PSAT.
The National Merit Scholarship is a 60 year old program created with the intention of honoring academically gifted students from across the country. The program uses scores from PSATs taken by juniors to judge who does and does not qualify for recognition.
Approximately 50,000 students qualify as National Merit Scholars each year. Some 34,000 of these participants are awarded the title of Commended Student. Though these students receive a certificate, they do not advance any further within the program and do not qualify for scholarships. About 16,000 students score slightly higher, and therefore are awarded the title of Semifinalist. Should they choose to do so, these students may apply for Finalist status and potentially receive scholarships.
Though the NCHS juniors received their PSAT scores through the mail in December 2014, they were not notified of their success in the National Merit Scholarship program until the beginning of this school year, as seniors.
Senior and semifinalist Jane Reed was rather startled by her achievement. “I was definitely surprised by my degree of success in PSAT,” senior and National Merit Semifinalist Jane Reed said. “I did not think that I would do that well and I went into it thinking that it didn’t really matter.”
While her individual success in the program may have been a shock to Jane, both she and fellow senior and semifinalist Brett Capone were not surprised by the overall performance of their class. “I’ve always known the class of 2016 is a very smart one, and New Canaan is always one of the top scoring schools,” Brett said. “We had a lot of winners last year, and there are six national merit semifinalists this year. So when I look at all of those people, I feel respect for how smart they are.”
According to College and Career Center Coordinator Ms. Susan Carroll, New Canaan High School typically has an unusually high number of students recognized by the program, especially when compared to the town’s small population.
“Each year we have about fifteen to twenty-two commended students and anywhere from two to eight semifinalists,” Ms. Carroll said. “If you look at Darien, they have five semifinalists. If you look at Wilton, who we usually compete with, they only have two. Weston has none. So I think that we did very well, as far as the National Merit Semifinalists are concerned.”
This year’s honorees are as follows:
Brett Capone, Semifinalist
Claire Moyle, Semifinalist
Jane Reed, Semifinalist
Christopher Reik, Semifinalist
Chloe Rosenberg, Semifinalist
Miles Turpin, Semifinalist
Kelsey Allen, Commended Student
Caroline Busch, Commended Student
Emma Clay, Commended Student
Gwen Davidson, Commended Student
Katharine Donovan, Commended Student
Griffin Edmonds, Commended Student
Abigail Farley, Commended Student
Robert Fusek, Commended Student
Joseph Gelhaus, Commended Student
Ethan Geller, Commended Student
Alexis Gelston, Commended Student
Arthur Hall, Commended Student
Elizabeth Kaliff, Commended Student
Joshua Klapper, Commended Student
Daniel Korsun, Commended Student
Charles Pitteway, Commended Student
Philippa Prior, Commended Student
Peter Trahanas, Commended Student
