McKeesport student is National Merit semifinalist
By JEFF STITT
jstitt@yourmvi.com
By this time next year, the McKeesport Area School District could be calling one of its students a National Merit Scholarship winner.
During last week’s school board meeting, Superintendent Dr. Mark Holtzman, recognized 16-year-old Rohaan Wasim, a junior at McKeesport High School, for scoring a 1480 out of a possible 1520 on his Preliminary SAT.
Holtzman revealed to the board that Rohaan has qualified as a semifinalist for the 2020 round of the National Merit Scholarship. He is ranked in the 99th percentile of test takers in the county, is in the top 1 percent out of 1.6 million high school students who enter the competition and is one of 16,000 students to be named a semifinalist.
The National Merit Scholarship Program is an academic competition for recognition and scholarships that began in 1955. High school students enter the National Merit Program by taking the PSAT or the National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test, which serves as an initial screen of approximately 1.6 million entrants each year, and by meeting published program entry and participation requirements. The program is run through the National Merit Scholarship Corporation. To participate in the program, a student must:
