Officials of the National Merit Scholarship Corporation have announced the names of approximately 16,000 Semifinalists in the 66th annual National Merit Scholarship Program. For the first time in school history, Belleville High School has three finalists.

We would like to congratulate Jacob Kean, Elise Medenwald, and Jackson Nolden.

These academically talented high school seniors have an opportunity to continue in the competition for some 7,600 National Merit Scholarships worth more than $30 million that will be offered next spring. 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 stat's percentage of the national total of graduating seniors. From the approximately 6,000 Semifinalists, about 15,000 are expected to advance to the Finalist level, and in February they will be notified of this designation.