Thirteen students from Lexington-Richland School District Five have been named Semifinalists in the 2025 National Merit Scholarship program. These talented high school seniors will now have the opportunity to compete for one of 6,870 National Merit Scholarships worth nearly $26 million, which will be awarded next spring.
The Semifinalists from School District Five include:
- Alyssa Culver-Draper (Dutch Fork High)
- Margaret Hamberg (Irmo High)
- Jennifer Liu (Dutch Fork High)
- Taehoon Noh (Dutch Fork High)
- Brodie Othersen (Chapin High)
- Bella Qian (Spring Hill High)
- Logan Rollins (Dutch Fork High)
- Gavin Rittgers (Spring Hill High)
- Leo Sun (Dutch Fork High)
- Rachel Syracuse (Dutch Fork High)
- Skye Veil (Dutch Fork High)
- William Wang (Dutch Fork High)
- Kaiyuan Xue (Dutch Fork High)
To advance to the Finalist level, these Semifinalists must meet rigorous academic standards, including submitting a detailed scholarship application, maintaining an excellent academic record, and earning qualifying SAT or ACT scores. Approximately 95% of the Semifinalists are expected to reach Finalist standing, and half of the Finalists will ultimately win a National Merit Scholarship.
“Congratulations to each of our students who have been recognized as National Merit Scholarship Semifinalists,” said Chief of Academics Tina McCaskill. “The accomplishments of these 13 students demonstrate our district’s commitment to academic excellence from our teachers and students. We celebrate with these students and their families and wish them well in the next steps of the program and their senior year.”
Winners of the 2025 National Merit Scholarships will be announced in stages between April and July of 2025.
