FHS National Merit finalists total 12
That number was not only the most among all Knox County Schools, it also equals the number of semi-finalists (13) at all county-wide schools combined — including private schools — confirmed FHS college and career counselor Katie King.
“Our numbers were on par with other years, but it was the most in Knox County,” King added.
Finalists were Aidan Cantu, Blake Cragen (also Class of 2021 valedictorian), Yasha Dodddabele, Rulan Gu, Hayle Kim, David Lee, Claudia Levi, Bennett Ogle, Gbemisola “Sola” Oladosu, Yash Patel, Vibha Raghu and William “Will” Tucker. Ashton Armbrister was named a National Merit Semi-finalist.
Of the Of the 1.5 million students taking the Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test, 50,000 qualify for recognition based on their high PSAT/NMSQT selection index scores.
Roughly 16,000 semi-finalists are chosen, with finalists among 15,000 of that number, according to the National Merit program website.
The finalists are eligible for further Merit Scholarship awards “based on their abilities skills and accomplishments,” according to the National Merit website.
