Three Central students are National Merit finalists

Aaron Goldstein and Brian Keohane of Mepham High School in North Bellmore and Max Mogel of Calhoun High School in Merrick have been recognized as finalists in the 2014 National Merit Scholarship Program.

Finalists in the competition are eligible for state, corporate and college scholarships. According to the National Merit Scholarship Program, the 15,000 finalists were chosen from a pool of 16,000 semifinalists. The semifinalists represented the top one-third of 50,000 high scorers who took the 2011 Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test, which had 1.5 million entrants from 22,000 high schools. Ranking is done with a selection index score based on combined scores from critical reading, math and writing.

“It is a prestigious honor for a student to be named a finalist in the National Merit Scholarship Program,” said Central District Superintendent John DeTommaso. “Aaron, Brian and Max are exemplary students and enrich their schools in so many different ways. I congratulate all three of them and wish them the best of luck in their bright futures.”