LSMSA Seniors Shine as National Merit Scholarship Semifinalists during COVID-19

Nine Louisiana School for Math, Science, and the Arts (LSMSA) seniors have been named National Merit Semifinalists by the National Merit Scholarship Corporation (NMSC): Cera Aex, Thibodaux; AnaLaysha Burgess-Collazo, Jeanerette; Paige Delsa, Mandeville; Eve Goodwin, Mandeville; Mary Hutson, Pineville; Allison Johnson, Lake Charles; Victoria McMillan, St. Francisville; Aubrey Prewitt, Mangham; Jalen Xia, Gretna. 

“We are beyond thrilled that nearly 10% of our seniors have a chance at earning one of the prestigious 7,600 National Merit Scholarships,” said Dr. Steve Horton, Executive Director of LSMSA. “The excellence and resilience that LSMSA students show have always been impressive, and their accomplishments are even that more incredible during a global pandemic, life-changing hurricane, and distance learning.”

Finalists will be determined in February, and final winners of 2021 will be announced beginning in April and concluding in July. These scholarship recipients will join more than 353,000 other distinguished young people who have earned the Merit Scholar title.

More than 1.5 million juniors in about 21,000 high schools entered the 2021 National Merit Scholarship Program by taking the 2019 Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test (PSAT/NMSQT), which served as an initial screen of program entrants. The nationwide pool of Semifinalists, representing less than one percent of U.S. high school seniors, includes the highest-scoring entrants in each state. The number of Semifinalists in a state is proportional to the state’s percentage of the national total of graduating seniors.

NMSC, a not-for-profit organization that operates without government assistance, was established in 1955 specifically to conduct the annual National Merit Scholarship Program. Scholarships are underwritten by NMSC with its own funds and by approximately 400 business organizations and higher education institutions that share NMSC’s goals of honoring the nation’s scholastic champions and encouraging the pursuit of academic excellence.