National Merit Scholarship Corporation (NMSC®) officials announced 40 Broward County Public Schools (BCPS) high school seniors as semifinalists in the 68th annual National Merit Scholarship Program. These academically talented students are among 216 semifinalists in Florida and more than 16,000 nationwide vying for one of the prestigious scholarships offered by the organization. The students will continue to compete for some 7,250 National Merit Scholarships worth nearly $28 million that will be offered next spring.
College Academy @ Broward College
Daniel Fallon
Sofia Guarisma
Michael Jaccoma
Micah Tam
Olivia Zhang
Cooper City High School
Samantha Carozzi
Jared Garfinkel
Trevor Overton
Coral Glades High School
Olivia Schwartz
Cypress Bay High School
Daphne Calin
Atiksh Chandra
Sebastian Correcha
Gabriele Di Gianluca
Daniel Garcia
Erick Mondragon
Sastha Rajamanikandan
Emma Rose
Xabier Sienra
Sahana Thayagabalu
Daniel Umarov
Om Vaddi
Deerfield Beach High School
Duncan Xie
Fort Lauderdale High School
Brandon Fingal
Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School
Choy Jason
Nabeeha Haque
Rushil Kothur
Joshua Schwartz
Monarch High School
Brooke Reynolds
Plantation High School
Kylie King
Jason Vadnos
Pompano Beach High School
Jonah Bennett,
Gabriel Demirza
Riley Dion
Kaitlyn Drew
Samir Husain
David Tran
West Broward High School
Ryan Garcia
Nikash Jakkidi
Taylor Pierson
William T. McFatter Technical High School
Marcus Secu
To become a finalist, the semifinalist and a high school official must submit a detailed scholarship application, in which they provide information about the semifinalist’s academic record, participation in school and community activities, demonstrated leadership abilities, employment, and honors and awards received. A semifinalist 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.
Three types of National Merit Scholarships will be offered in the spring of 2023. Every finalist will compete for one of 2,500 National Merit® $2,500 Scholarships that will be awarded on a state-representational basis. About 950 corporate-sponsored Merit Scholarship awards will be provided by approximately 180 corporations and business organizations for finalists who meet their specified criteria, such as children of the grantor’s employees or residents of communities where sponsor plants or offices are located. In addition, about 160 colleges and universities are expected to finance some 3,800 college-sponsored Merit Scholarship awards for finalists who will attend the sponsor institution.
National Merit Scholarship winners of 2023 will be announced in four nationwide news releases beginning in April and concluding in July. These scholarship recipients will join nearly 368,000 other distinguished young people who have earned the Merit Scholar title