Seventeen RL Boys Recognized in National Merit Scholar Competition

The National Merit Scholarship Program recently announced the names of students in the Class of 2024, across the country, earning recognition for their academic achievement. This year, 17 Roxbury Latin boys have been recognized—nine named National Merit Scholar semifinalists, and eight others earning commendations from program officials.

In this 69th annual National Merit Scholarship competition, semifinalists have the opportunity to become finalists and compete for some 7,250 National Merit Scholarships, nationwide. The awards are supported by the organization and approximately 340 businesses and educational institutions, to “honor the nation’s scholastic champions and encourage the pursuit of academic excellence.”

Juniors from across the United States entered the 2024 National Merit Scholarship program by taking the 2022 PSAT, which serves 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. From the approximately 16,000 semifinalists, about 15,000 are expected to advance to become finalists. Scholarship recipients are selected on the basis of their skills, accomplishments, and potential for academic success at the college level.

Roxbury Latin boys earning recognition this year include semifinalists Theo Coben, Leo Bene, Joseph Wang, Lucas Vander Elst, Aidan D’Alessandro, Akhilsai Damera, Eric Zhu, Dennis Jin, and Jack Tompros; and commendation recipients Ian Fuller, Hunter Lane, Ryan Lin, Ryan Peterson, Ayan Shekhar, Reid Spence, Justin Yamaguchi, and Evan Zhang.