Seven seniors excel

Seven seniors — Nicholas Markarian, Roshni Dugar, Thomas Qin, Taha Suterwala, Christopher Lee, Dennis Chiu and Grace Ye — have been named semifinalists in the 61st annual National Merit Scholarship Program.

“Looks like it’s true — if you put effort into something, you are rewarded and an honor like this really reminds you of that,” Dugar said.

About 1.5 million juniors in some 22,000 high schools across the nation entered the 2015 National Merit Scholarship Program by taking the 2013 PSAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test. 16,000 of the highest-scoring entrants became semifinalists. The cutoff score for California was 223.

“[Becoming a semifinalist] felt good. I mean, I kind of anticipated it, based on previous years what the scores were, but it still felt good to be part of it,” Sutarwala said.

The semifinalists also shared their pre-test preparations.

“My dad would wake up early and cook me good-luck pot stickers and rice porridge for breakfast, and of course, being myself, I would scramble at the last minute for my ID, calculator and pencils and hope that I wouldn’t be late,” Qin said. “I played at least two hours of tennis every day with sprints. It clears your mind.”

Lee prepared in a similar fashion.

“The morning of, I read an essay just to get my mind fresh, and I got up an hour early so I would not be late for the test,” Lee said. “And I had cereal. I always eat cereal.”

These seven seniors have the opportunity to continue in the competition to earn one of the some 7,400 scholarships, each worth up to $2,500.  To become a finalist, semifinalists must have an outstanding academic record throughout high school, have the endorsement of their high school principals and earn SAT scores that confirm their earlier performance on the PSAT.

In addition, each semifinalist must submit a detailed scholarship application that includes an essay and information about his or her participation and leadership in school and community activities. Finalists will be named in February.

Advancing to the semifinalist phase of the scholarship has motivated Chiu to work harder during his senior year.

“The most motivation that it has provided me is to try and qualify for the finalist, which is essentially another college application, but I have already prepared a few essays for my regular college application,” Chiu said.

Markarian agreed.

“[Becoming a semifinalist] means that I’ve been doing the right things so far, but it also means that there is work to be done in order to become a finalist. It’s a chance to represent the school and an opportunity to pursue a goal,” Markarian said.