3 SWLA students named National Merit Scholarship semifinalists

LAKE CHARLES, La. (KPLC) - Around 200 students from Louisiana high schools were named 2024 National Merit Scholarship semifinalists, and three of them are in Southwest Louisiana.

Over 1.3 million juniors in around 21,000 high schools nationwide entered the program by taking the PSAT in 2022. The semifinalist list includes the highest-scoring entrants in each state.

A semifinalist must have an outstanding academic record throughout high school, be endorsed and recommended by a high school official, write an essay and score well on the ACT or SAT.

The following SWLA students are 2024 semifinalists:

London C. Frey of Iowa High School
Robert J. Fuslier of Barbe High School
Julia Jiang of Barbe High School.

Jiang was recognized in the spring for earning a perfect ACT score as a junior.

Of the 16,000 semifinalists, more than 15,000 are expected to advance to the finalist level. The finalists will compete for one of 2,500 $2,500 National Merit Scholarship awards.

The finalist list will be announced in February 2024. The winners will be announced in April through July.