Most kids their senior year work to graduate with a GPA high enough to get into the first college on their list. Though the National Merit Scholars work to achieve recognition college and university-bound. In addition, students work to also achieve a strong GPA to be picked for the National Recognition Program Scholars.

The National Recognition Program Scholars give students a subscription to colleges and universities due to their high performance and prepared work ethic in high school.

“There isn’t really a ‘hard’ part to receiving recognition, there was definitely a tough path to reach[ing] this point though,” Merit Semi-Finalist Andrew Winter said. “It was pretty cool to go down to the principal’s office with my friends and receive the news, and seeing my old elementary school teachers reach out to congratulate me showed how much they care about all of their students and made me smile.”

Over 16,000 become semi-finalists through academic achievement to show how successful they can be through rigorous college work. Including providing information on what they do to achieve this, whether it be through volunteering, work management, leadership, awards and other activities.

“So far it’s not too hard to keep up the good grades, and I like the rigor of it all,” Jacqueline, or Jackie, Knappenberger, Nationally Recognized Scholar said, “So taking on the presidency of NEHS is nice.”

Furthermore, despite the hard work and the dedication needed to achieve high status, it’s worth it according to Knappenberger and Winter; believing college applications really stand out with recognition.

“Yeah, it was worth it because of what I get to put on my college applications now, but I won’t know for sure till you know, decisions and all,” Knappenberger said.

Though academics proved to get students into better schools and higher percents, Winter feels that in spite of this, self-improvement and care needs to be a priority above attempting a higher achievement.

“Also please do not place all of your worth on academics or something along those lines, how you perform in certain areas of life does not affect your worth,” Winter said. “Take care of yourself before you obsess over trying to achieve something.”