Bethel Park students earn National Merit Scholarship honors

Four Bethel Park High School seniors have been recognized for academic excellence by one of the country’s best-known and longest-running scholarship programs.

The National Merit Scholarship Corp. has designated Bryce Clancy, Henry Gaston, Lucas Hertzel and Lupe McElvenny as 2024 NMS commended students.

Clancy and Gaston have also been named 2024 NMS semifinalists. They are among 16,000 students eligible to compete for one of 7,250 NMS scholarships worth more than $30 million. The nationwide pool of semifinalists represents less than 1% of U.S. high school seniors.

Students enter the competition by taking the Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test during their junior year.

Of the 1.5 million entrants each year, some 50,000 with the highest PSAT/NMSQT Selection Index scores qualify for NMS recognition as either commended students or semifinalists.

The National Merit Scholarship Program is an academic competition for recognition scholarships that began in 1955. Approximately 1.5 million high school students from more than 21,000 high schools enter the program annually.