VALLEY CITY, N.D. (NewsDakota.com) – Valley City High School senior Daniel Wintch has been awarded the National Merit Scholarship semifinalist honor. Over 1.5 million students in approximately 21,000 high school across the nation entered the 2021 National Merit Scholarship program by taking the 2019 Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test (PSAT/NMSQT).

Principal Kristi Brandt said 16,000 semifinalists are chosen based on their achievement score. At this point in the process, Daniel is one of 16,000 students chosen across the nation. His score has placed him in the semifinalist category where all of the students are considered to have the highest entrance scores achieved.

Daniel is the son of Wesley & Natalie Wintch. He excels in the classroom and participates in a variety of extra-activities and co-curricular activities at Valley City High School. Daniel is a leader of the student council, he participates in show choir, jazz band, cross country, and basketball. We are extremely proud of Daniel and his achievement of being chosen as a National Merit Scholar Semifinalist.

Brandt said to advance as a finalist, semifinalists must meet additional standards and fulfill several requirements. These include having a record of very high academic performance in college preparatory course work, submitting SAT or ACT scores; and being fully endorsed and recommended by a high school official. Additionally, Daniel will be asked to write an essay and provide information about activities, volunteer service, leadership positions, honors/awards and employment. A comprehensive file of information collected about each semifinalist is used in the selection process. 15,000 semifinalists will become finalists. From that final 15,000 finalist, 7,600 National Merit Scholarships will be offered in 2021. We wish Daniel the best of luck as he continues in this process that could earn him significant scholarship offers and opportunities and academic sponsorships from across the nation said principal Kristi Brandt.