Orange, CA – February 21, 2020 – Officials of the National Merit Scholarship Corporation (NMSC) announced the names of approximately 16,000 Finalists in the 64th annual National Merit Scholarship Program.

We are pleased to announce that Canyon High School students Mark Grujic and Ethan Ong, as well as Villa Park High School students Caitlyn Baxter and Ryan Vu are Finalists in the 2020 National Merit Scholarship Program. These academically talented high school seniors will now continue in the competition for some 7,500 National Merit Scholarships worth more than $31 million. 

Over 1.5 million juniors in more than 22,000 high schools entered the 2020 National Merit Scholarship Program by taking the 2018 Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test (PSAT/NMSQT®), which served as an initial screen of program entrants.  The nationwide pool of semifinalists, representing less than one percent of U.S. high school seniors, includes the highest scoring entrants in each state.  National Merit Scholarship winners of 2020 will be announced in four nationwide news releases beginning in April and concluding in July.

Orange Unified is proud to recognize and celebrate the accomplishments of our students and wish them the best as they move forward as National Merit Scholarship Finalists.