Five Central students named National Merit finalists

Five Bellmore-Merrick Central High School District seniors recently learned that they are finalists in the prestigious National Merit Scholarship Program. They are: Benjamin Dickstein of Calhoun High School; Joshua Cohen, Gregory Manis and Darwin Shen of Kennedy High School; and Steven Tsai of Mepham High School.

All five were honored at the Central High School District Board of Education meeting on Wednesday.

High school students enter the National Merit Program by taking the Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test, which screens more than 1.5 million entrants each year. Some 15,000 semifinalists are notified by mail in February of their senior year that they have advanced to the finalist stage of the competition. High school principals are notified and provided with a certificate to present to each finalist. Competition winners, who receive $2,500 scholarships, are drawn from the pool of finalists.