St. Thomas Aquinas (STA) High School is pleased to announce that the National Merit Scholarship Corporation has named seniors James Klingensmith and Matthew Radford National Merit Scholarship Finalists.
Started in 1955, the National Merit Scholarship Program is an academic competition for recognition and scholarships, honoring students who show exceptional academic ability and potential for success in rigorous college studies. High school students enter the National Merit Program by taking the Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test. The test serves as an initial screen of more than 1.5 million entrants each year. Of these entrants, some 50,000 with the highest PSAT scores qualify for recognition in the National Merit Scholarship Program.
Klingensmith and Radford will now compete for one of the 8,400 Merit Scholarships to be awarded this spring from a group of more than 15,000 scholarship finalists. This finalist group represents less than 1 percent of the nation’s pool of high school seniors.
“We are very proud of James and Matthew’s accomplishments in moving forward as candidates for a National Merit Scholarship. Each is most deserving of this consideration; they are two of St. Thomas’ finest students,” said Principal Kevin Collins.
Radford is from Brentwood, and was also recently named as a US Presidential Scholarship candidate. He is a three-season runner and a member of the STA Music Ministry program. In college, he plans to study math, physics and music. Among others, Radford has applied to Olin College, Boston College, Dartmouth, Harvard, Bowdoin, Wesleyan and Gordon College.
Klingensmith is from Nottingham, and is a member of the STA D-V State Champion Football Team and the Math Team. James is interested in studying chemical engineering and is awaiting decisions from Worcester Polytechnic Institute and Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.
PHOTO CAPTION: National Merit Scholarship Finalists Matthew Radford and James Klingensmith shown with St. Thomas Aquinas Principal Kevin Collins. (Courtesy Photo)
