Sept. 21, 2021

28 seniors earn National Merit Commended status 

Twenty-eight Upper St. Clair High School seniors were recently named Commended Students in the 2022 National Merit Scholarship Program.

Scott X. Cheung, Alyana S. Childs, William H. Closser, Kaitlyn A. Clougherty, Varun Damarla, Saif A. Durrani, Linus R. Friedman, Shivani A. Jajoo, Rushikesh D. Kulkarni, Maggie F. Lowden, Catalina I. Marchando, Ethan T. Neal, Dev K. Patel, Michael V. Pellicci, Sambhav M. Saggi, Vidhur V. Senthil, Ritvick P. Shah, Sujay K. Shah, Nitish Sharma, Nikhil E. Shetty, Jeet J. Sutreja, Evan Tefft, Alexander Teresi, Hersh R. Tripathi, Madeleine J. Wetzel, Andrew H. White, Shane L. Williams and Adam Zheng are among the 34,000 Commended Students throughout the nation who are being recognized for their exceptional academic promise.

“Earning recognition as a Commended Student is a tremendous accomplishment,” Dr. Timothy Wagner, Upper St. Clair High School principal, said. “These 28 seniors scored in the top three percent of all PSAT test-takers nationwide. We are incredibly proud of our students, their families and their teachers.”

Commended Students placed among the top 50,000 students who entered the 2022 competition by taking the 2020 Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test (PSAT/NMSQT) last October.

“Those being named Commended Students have demonstrated outstanding potential for academic success,” commented a spokesperson for the National Merit Scholarship Corporation. “These students represent a valuable national resource; recognizing their accomplishments, as well as the key role their schools play in their academic development, is vital to the advancement of educational excellence in our nation. We hope that this recognition will help broaden their educational opportunities and encourage them as they continue their pursuit of academic success.”

Earlier this month the National Merit Scholarship Corporation announced the program’s Semifinalists, which included 10 Upper St. Clair seniors. In total, 38 Upper St. Clair students earned recognition as a Semifinalist or Commended Student in the 2022 National Merit Scholarship Program.

For more information regarding the National Merit Scholarship Program, visit: www.nationalmerit.org.