YOUTH ON THE GO

Rhinebeck High School senior James Ayton was named a semifinalist in the 2019 National Merit Scholarship Program.

Some 16,000 semifinalist snationwide were named by the National Merit Scholarship Corporation. About 1.6 million juniors in more than 22,000 high schools entered the 2019 National Merit Scholarship Program by taking the 2017 PSAT. The nationwide pool of Semifinalists, representing less than 1 percent of U.S. high school seniors, includes the highest-scoring entrants in each state.

From the approximately 16,000 semifinalists, about 15,000 are expected to advance to the finalist level and will be notified of this designation in February. All National Merit Scholarship winners will be selected from this group of finalists. Merit Scholar designees are selected on the basis of their skills, accomplishments and potential for success in rigorous college studies.

••• Five Red Hook High School students — David Factor, Hannah Malafy, Jacob Ostfeld, Theresa Rothwell and Kyle Staubi — were named commended students in the 2019 National Merit Scholarship Program.

About 34,000 commended students nationwide were recognized for their achievements. Although they will not continue in the 2019 competition for National Merit Scholarship awards, commented

students placed among the top 50,000 scorers of more than 1.6 million students who entered the 2019 competition by taking the 2017 Preliminary SAAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying

Test.

A letter of Commendation from the school and the National Merit Scholarship Corporation, which conducts the program, was presented to the students, who are all seniors.