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BJHS, JCHS Soar In National Merit Scholars

September 2023 post

Madison City Schools once again has the most National Merit Semifinalists of any other school district in Alabama, regardless of size.

The 2024 list shows Madison City Schools with a total of  30 merit semifinalists.
Bob Jones has 16 national merit semifinalists and James Clemens has 14.
Schools Superintendent Dr. Ed Nichols said he’s proud of the students for their hard work and for the teachers that prepared them from the earliest grades on up. Nichols credited the strong foundation of MCS set by past and present leadership that continues through the unwavering support of parents, community leaders, Board of Education members, principles, administrators and dedicated teachers and staff in MCS elementary, middle and high schools.
A vast majority of the National Merit Semifinalists for Madison City Schools attended MCS schools from elementary school on, a credit to the outstanding teachers and staffs in our elementary and middle schools as well as both high schools. "These results once again prove that it does not matter where you live or go to school in Madison, every school is one of the nation's best," Dr. Nichols said.

This is the 3rd year in a row and the 4th time in the last 5 years that MCS has had the most NMSF of all school districts in Alabama. The 16 students from BJHS and the 14 from JCHS placed both high schools in the top 5 of Alabama high schools. There have been 144 National Merit Semifinalists from MCS in the past 5 years.
 

The nationwide pool of National Merit Semifinalists, representing less than 1 percent of U.S. high school seniors, includes the highest scoring students in each state on PSAT/NMSQT tests which they took as juniors. Most of the semifinalists will advance through the largely technical phase of qualifying as finalists in February and compete for 7,500 National Merit scholarships worth approximately $30 million.

 group photo of Bob Jones merit semifinalist students

Pictured in no particular order are Principal Sylvia Lambert, Abram Carlson, Samantha Chan, Andrew Crocker, Gianna Dieselberg, Rachel Ehrman, Luke Garrison, Elizabeth Haddock, Lucy Halter, Piper Larkin, Francois Le Roux, Madeline McInvale, Elizabeth Newsom, Pranaav Satheesh, Lauren Sheehy, Taylor Turpin, Zoe Widman.

 

group photo of James Clemens merit semifinalist students

Pictured in no particular order with JC Principal Dr. Kerry Donaldson in center: Angela Ai, Shivani Alapati, Carlin Chacko, Bhavya Chalasani, Clara Choung, Abhishek Emani, Connie Guo, Grace Hur, Lilliann Markowitz, Aasim Musani, Brock Senel, Neil Sethi, Saahil Shaik, Samuel Townsend.