Two named National Merit Scholarship finalists

Elk River Star News

Two local students have been named finalists for the National Merit Scholarship.

They are Spectrum High School senior Benjamin Harvey and Elk River High School student Haley Yoder.

The National Merit Scholarship is an academic competition that began in 1955. High school students qualify by taking the preliminary SAT and National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test, which screens more than 1.6 million entrants, according to the National Merit Scholarship website.

Of the 1.6 million, about 50,000 with the highest scores are recognized in the National Merit Scholarship Program. About 34,000 become commended students while the rest with the higher scores become semifinalists.

About 16,000 students were notified in September 2017 that they were semifinalists, which are designated by state. About 15,000 of those become finalists. Winners of the Merit Scholarship awards are chosen from the finalists — approximately 7,500 receive awards.

The Elk River High School account tweeted a congratulations to Yoder for becoming a finalist with #elkpride. Principal Terry Bizal tweeted a congratulations as well when Yoder was named a semifinalist in September 2017.

Yoder was heavily involved with the school’s mathematics team. In February 2017, Yoder took the American Mathematics Contest and tied with a senior for the high score. In March 2017, the team competed at the Math League State Tournament after placing second in its division. During that tournament, Yoder received a perfect score on an individual test. She also received an award in April at a math contest in St. Cloud.

Harvey was recognized in the Spectrum High School newsletter in September — where he has also appeared in a number of times as part of the school’s honor roll — when he was named as one of the semifinalists.

Harvey participates in cross country — he was awarded a “hard worker” in 2015. He is also a contributor to the yearbook staff for the “Spectrum Accolade.” In the April 2017 edition, Harvey wrote about senior skip day.

Now finalists, Harvey and Yoder are able to compete for three types of scholarships — National Merit scholarships, corporate-sponsored scholarships and college-sponsored scholarships.

Merit scholarships are single payments worth $2,500 and are awarded regardless of financial circumstances, college choice, majors or career plans. Corporate sponsors are able to choose the recipients of their awards and it could be based on career choice or ties to the company. These scholarships could be one time or could be renewed. College scholarships are awarded after a student has been accepted for admission at the college and the college is the student’s first choice. These scholarships can also be one time or could be renewed.