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Lemont High School has announced that seniors Leonardo Rafacz and Nora Thornber have been named National Merit Semifinalists. This recognition comes as a result of their performance on the 2023 Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test (PSAT/NMSQT). In addition, seven other students from Lemont High School received National Merit Commended Students distinction.
This year marks the fourth occasion where Lemont has had nine National Merit honorees in a single year and the eighth time multiple students have been named semifinalists. More than 1.3 million high school juniors took the PSAT/NMSQT in October 2023, with approximately 16,000 students being named as National Merit Scholar Semifinalists and around 34,000 designated as Commended Students.
The seven students receiving Commended Student accolades are Carly Brennan, Sophia Bushnell, Julianna Duran, Simas Dyglys, Preston Gierman, Charles Heger, and Alexander Lazarowicz. The scores achieved by these nine honorees placed them among the top five percent of U.S. students from the Class of 2025 who participated in last year's test.
Rafacz and Thornber will continue to compete for nearly $26 million in National Merit Scholarships available in Spring 2025. To qualify for a scholarship, semifinalists must submit a detailed application along with their high schools.
The selection process for National Merit Semifinalists is based on state-level performance with numbers proportional to each state's percentage of graduating seniors nationwide. Finalist status will be announced in February 2025.
In past years, Lemont's Class of 2016 set a record with three semifinalists while the Class of 2018 had a record total of sixteen honorees recognized as either semifinalists or commended students. Recent classes have also seen significant recognition with nine honorees each from the Classes of 2019 and 2025.
Notable past semifinalists from Lemont include David Ketchum '93 and Bonnie Paris '93 (1992), Andrew Nogal '02 and John Shilkaitis '02 (2001), Monica Pachl-Moran '04 (2003), Jessica DeArcangelis '09 and Michael Fischer '09 (2008), among others up to Maximillian Schuette ‘24 and Nora Zhou ‘24 (2023).
The National Merit Scholarship Corporation was founded in 1955 as a not-for-profit organization operating without government aid. Its scholarships are funded by its own resources along with contributions from nearly 300 business organizations and higher education institutions committed to honoring academic excellence.
