This Valley Stream Central High School student is a National Merit finalist

To be named a National Merit Scholar is to enter a rarefied club of students who, just to be considered worthy, must test in the top one percent of test-takers for the PSAT/ National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test.

There’s more, of course. Students must also be academically accomplished overall, write persuasively about themselves, and demonstrate involvement and leadership in extracurricular activities.

Last November, Central High School’s, Saajed Yaseen, a transgender man, advanced as a semi-finalist, joining 16,000 high achievers nationwide instantly putting him in the running for the title of National Merit Finalist. Yaseen was within sight of achieving the PSAT’s perfect score of 1520. His score was 1470.

Now, Yaseen climbed a rung higher in the competition as a National Merit Finalist. It’s a distinction bestowed on only 15,000 students in the country, placing him within arms reach of being named a National Merit Scholarship winner. The scholars represent roughly half of the finalists and will take home $2,500.

One test to  rule them all

National Merit Scholar can dramatically elevate a student’s academic profile in the eyes of top college recruiters. But even those who don’t cinch the final prize, are often recipients of generous scholarship packages and highly sought-after by a swath of colleges and universities.

Despite recent inroads by colleges to diminish the bearing that standardized testing has on an applicant’s attractiveness, the National Merit Scholar competition is still, at its core, a contest for the best test-takers. In this, Yaseen excels with flying colors.

“Taking the test was calming for me because I forgot about everything else around me and was there to prove myself,” Yaseen said last year. “It’s standardized. There are very clear instructions on what you have to do. There’s a procedure to follow.”

The math portion of the exam came especially straightforward for Yaseen thanks to his time spent as a math tutor from grades pre-K to 11th grade.

“Having those foundations as a tutor I found is better than the traditional study route,” said Yaseen who believes there’s no better way of understanding concepts than by teaching and explaining them to others.

Saajed has a big story to tell

But his top-notch test-taking ability only chips at the surface of Yaseen’s distinct and much-admired presence at Central. A product of homeschooling for most of his life, it’s only in his latter years, starting in 10th grade, that he’s getting the conventional public high school experience. No sooner had he stepped away from his nontraditional classroom than he found himself thriving at Valley Stream Central High School, according to her counselor Amy La Personerie.

“Yaseen is one of the most humble students here, and effortlessly blew us away with his academic success,” said La Presonerie. “In my career, seeing somebody come out of homeschool and achieve at that level was monumental.”

His personal life has also straddled a delicate line between two important features of his identity. It was even the topic of his National Merit essay.

“My family is Muslim and I’m a Muslim, and I’m also transgender,” said Yaseen. “I go by he, him, his pronouns. There’s sometimes conflict in my community because of that but I’m learning to overcome that and accept both parts of myself.”

“Trans students can face significant issues coming into public school and being accepted, but the transition for Saajed has been seamless, and he’s been an asset,” said La Presonerie.

With or without the laurels of the National Merit Scholarship, Yaseen seems to feel fully at home with what he’s  achieved and what his college future will bring. “I’ve committed to City College of New York where I’ll be studying mechanical engineering in the Macaulay Honors Program,” said Yaseen.

“The Macaulay Honors Program is a full scholarship program and the most competitive program at CUNY,” said La Personerie. “Yaseen will be greatly missed and we hope for great things in his future.”

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