Twenty seniors from Canyons School District high schools have been named as 2023 National Merit Scholarship Program semifinalists and are in the running for nearly $28 million scholarships that will be awarded next spring.

Hillcrest High boasts 13 National Merit semifinalists, placing it in the top three statewide for fielding the most National Merit semifinalists.

High school juniors entered the 2023 National Merit Scholarship Program by taking the 2021 Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test, which served as an initial screen of program entrants. The nationwide pool of semifinalists represents fewer than 1 percent of U.S. high school seniors. The number of semifinalists in a particular state is proportional to the state’s percentage of the national total of graduating seniors.

For the next step, semifinalists and a high school official must submit a detailed scholarship application, which includes information about the student’s academic record, participation in school and community activities, demonstrated leadership abilities, employment, and honors and awards received. Semifinalists must have an outstanding academic record throughout high school, be endorsed and recommended by a high school official, write an essay, and earn SAT or ACT scores that confirm the student’s earlier performance on the qualifying test.

The 2022-2023 National Merit Scholarship semifinalists from Canyons District are:

Hillcrest

James Abbott, Lauren Andrade, Michael Chen, Campbell Hone, Andrew Liew, Rian Liew, Samuel Martin, Priyanka Mathews, Sofia Moeinvaziri, Sowmya Paritala, Amber Parker, Naoto Robinson, Jayashabari Shankar

Corner Canyon

Ian Colton, Ashton Coombs, Andrew Kolda, Caitlin Madsen, Michael Pond, Dawson Walker

Alta

Serena Jefferson