Victoria Kourbatova, a senior at Kentwood High School, was selected as 2020 National Merit Scholarship Semifinalist by the National Merit Scholarship Corporation. 

“I’m honored to be recognized as a National Merit Semifinalist and excited to be one step closer to success in and after college,” Victoria said.  

She is one of 16,000 students selected for this prestigious honor from a pool of more than 1.5 million students who entered the 2019 National Merit Scholarship Program by taking the Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test as juniors. These semifinalists represent less than one percent of U.S. high school seniors. 

She will now compete for Merit Scholarship awards by qualifying as a National Merit Finalist in February 2020. About 7,500 Merit Scholarships worth more than $31 million will be awarded in this spring.  

To become a Finalist, a Semifinalist must have an outstanding academic record throughout high school, be endorsed and recommended by the school principal, and earn SAT scores that confirm the student’s earlier qualifying test performance. Merit Scholar designees are selected on the basis of their skills, accomplishments and potential for success in rigorous college studies. 

After she graduates from high school, Victoria plans to attend the University of Washington in Seattle or Stanford University in California to study computer science and music. After college, “I hope to find a job that lets me express my creativity through working with technology,” she added.  

Article Source: Kent Meridian High School