Five Hewlett students are Merit semifinalists

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Hewlett High School seniors Ethan Abelev, Hiral Chavre, Brian Chen, Anthony Ginzburg and Ilana Mizrahi were named semifinalists in the National Merit Scholarship Program.

Based on academics, the students are competing for 7,250 National Merit scholarships worth nearly $28 million, which will be offered next spring. To advance to finalist level, the students must fulfill several requirements.

Roughly 95 percent of the semifinalists attain finalists status and then an estimated half of those finalists win a National Merit Scholarship and earn the title of Merit Scholar.

Established in 1995, the program is a nonprofit that operates without government assistance. The scholarships are underwritten by the program and roughly 340 business organizations and institutions of higher education that the program’s goals of recognizing high-achieving students and encouraging the pursuit of academic excellence.

Scholarship winners will be announced in four nationwide news releases beginning in April and ending in July. Nearly 368,000 students have earned the title of Merit Scholar to date.