Tyler Evans named semifinalist in national scholarship program

Post date: Oct 02, 2019 8:23:33 PM

Principal Eileen Sheehy of Wells High School announced recently that senior Tyler Evans has been named a semifinalist in the 2019 National Merit Scholarship Program (NMSP). Evans is the son of Jason and April Evans of Ogunquit.

“Tyler has demonstrated outstanding potential for academic success,” commented Principal Sheehy. “(He) is an outstanding student. We are extremely proud of Tyler’s significant accomplishment on his PSATs. This recognition is exceptional.”

Tyler Evans is one of 16,000 students (less than 1 percent of U.S. high school seniors) to score in the top 3 percent of approximately 1.6 million high school juniors who took the Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test (PSAT/NMSQT) in the fall of 2018. Semifinalists in this academic competition have the opportunity to continue in the process to become a finalist and receive a scholarship in the spring of 2020.

“It means quite a lot to me to be a semifinalist. I worked quite a bit to prepare for the PSATs and SATs as well,” said Evans who added that he was not aware of the scholarship aspect of the competition until recently. “So it was quite the surprise to find out that I was a semifinalist. I am really excited to find out whether or not I will actually be a finalist.” He says he is “really into math and science” at WHS and plans to apply to MIT or Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI). He indicated that he wants a career involving math and science, probably in the engineering or computer science field.

According to the National Merit Scholarship Program, “These students represent a valuable national resource; recognizing their accomplishments, as well as the key role their schools play in their academic development is vital to the advancement of educational excellence in our nation. We hope that this recognition will help broaden their educational opportunities and encourage them as they continue their pursuit of academic success.”

Established in 1955, the National Merit Scholarship Program is a non-profit, non-governmental program that recognizes and awards scholarship money to those who demonstrate high academic achievement and promise. The National Merit Scholarship Program is administered by the National Merit Scholarship Corporation of Evanston Illinois.