61.0°,
Light Rain Meriting recognition
More than 1.5 million juniors in about 22,000 high schools entered the 2010 National Merit Scholarship Program by taking the 2008 Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test (PSAT/NMSQT).
Out of that large applicant pool, approximately 16,000 scholastically-talented high school seniors were named semifinalists in the 55th annual National Merit Scholarship Program. The nationwide pool of semifinalists, which represents less than one percent of U.S. high school seniors, includes the highest scoring performers on the PSAT exam in each state. The number of semifinalists in a state is proportional to the state's percentage of the national total of graduating seniors.
Of the nearly 16,000 semifinalists, 899 of those students were from New York. Five of those are from schools within the Five Towns — Michael Kornblit, a 12th grader from Woodmere attending HAFTR; Albert Chen, a member of Lawrence High School's class of 2010; and Daniel Bailin, Eric Brooks and Fumi Akinnawonu, all seniors at Hewlett High School. These students will be notified in February if they were named National Merit finalists.
Michael Kornblit — HAFTR High School
Seventeen-year-old Michael Kornblit, a 12th grader from Woodmere attending HAFTR, scored a 218 out of 240 on the PSAT. He is planning on going to Israel for a year after his graduation from high school, but hopes to attend college the following year. He plans to apply to Columbia, University of Pennsylvania and the New York University Stern School of Business.
Activities and Interests: Michael is a member of College Bowl, the Math team and a long-time youth leader at Young Israel of Hewlett. He is actively involved in many sports and he plays for the school’s softball and tennis teams. Michael is interested in pursuing a career in the field of medicine or business. He also enjoys reading, skiing, and listening to music.
How does it feel to be named as a semifinalist for the National Merit Scholarship? “It felt great because I put a lot of work into it. I studied a lot, so it felt pretty good. it was exciting to find out and was definitely a great thing to hear because it looks good for college.”
