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National Merit Semifinalist
Northwest Senior is El Paso’s Only National Merit Semifinalist
Posted on 09/16/2016
This is the image for the news article titled Northwest Senior is El Paso’s Only National Merit SemifinalistNorthwest Early College High School boasts El Paso’s only semifinalist for the National Merit Scholarship Program this year. Senior Samantha Aziz was selected based on her performance on the PSAT/NMSQT and has a chance to be named a finalist this spring 2017, putting her in the running for several scholarships.

The National Merit Scholarship Program is an academic competition for recognition and scholarships that receives approximately W.5 million entrants annually and the highest PSAT/NMSQT selection scores qualify for recognition. Aziz was surprised at the announcement.

“When Ms. Speaker said congratulations and handed me the paper that said National Merit on the top, I was so exhilarated thinking that I would not have to pay for college and money wasn’t going to be an issue any more,” she said.

Aziz believes that being at the Early College is definitely a great privilege because she is able to be in a place that really challenges her.

“I was able to develop my critical thinking and analysis skills and being in such a small community meant that there is a lot of support from all of my friends. I feel like I can really move forward because I have a good foundation here.”