Waterville Senior High School senior Karin Zimba has been named a finalist in the 2023 National Merit Scholarship Program.

Zimba, the daughter of Travis and Yasameen Zimba of Waterville, is one step closer to earning one of 7,250 National Merit Scholarships, worth nearly $28 million.

Finalists placed among the top 1% of high school seniors who entered the 2023 competition by taking the 2021 Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test (PSAT/NMSQT), according to a news release from Dr. Brian Laramee, principal, and the National Merit Scholarship Corporation.

To become a finalist, the semifinalist and a high school official had to submit a detailed scholarship application, in which they provided information about their academic record, participation in school and community activities, demonstrated leadership abilities, employment, and honors and awards received.

A semifinalist must have an outstanding academic record throughout high school, be endorsed and recommended by a high school official, write an essay, and earn SAT or ACT scores that confirm the student’s earlier performance on the qualifying test.

From more than 16,000 semifinalists, more than 15,000 were expected to advance to the finalist level and notified this month. All National Merit Scholarship winners will be selected from this group of finalists.

Scholarship winners of 2023 will be announced in four nationwide news releases beginning in April and concluding in July. These scholarship recipients will join nearly 368,000 other distinguished young people who have earned the Merit Scholar title.

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