Six from McT named National Merit Semifinalists

By ROB HERBST
The Catholic Week
MOBILE — It’s a prestigious honor for any school to have one student named a National Merit Semifinalist.
But how about six National Merit Semifinalists? 
McGill-Toolen Catholic High School recently announced it is home to six National Merit Semifinalists this year. McGill-Toolen seniors Russell Ginn, Anthony Hantouche, Maggie Heller, Chris Hunt, Brendan Russell and Colson Tidikis will have the opportunity to continue in the competition for more than 7,000 National Merit Scholarships worth nearly $28 million that will be offered next spring.
The six National Merit Semifinalists are the most for McGill-Toolen since 2019. 
There are only 28 National Merit Semifinalists in all of Mobile County and no high school within Mobile County has more National Merit Semifinalists this year than McGill-Toolen. There are 260 National Merit Semifinalists in Alabama this year and 16,000 nationwide, representing less than 1 percent of high school seniors.
“We are very proud to announce the selection of six of our McGill-Toolen seniors as National Merit Semifinalists,” McGill-Toolen President Fr. Bry Shields said. “This recognition is given only to the most outstanding students in the nation, and it is based on superior academic achievement, as indicated by standardized test scores and grade point average. In Mobile County, for example, only 28 students received this prestigious award this year.  
“Such a superb honor is a credit to the hard work of these six students, the support of their parents, and the faculty at McGill-Toolen, who challenge all their students to strive for academic excellence.”  
Along with having six National Merit Semifinalists, McT announced that William Blanchette was selected as a National Merit Commended Scholar.




St. Michael's Trey Bauldin III earns honor
St. Michael Catholic High School also has its own National Merit Semifinalist as Trey Bauldin III received the honor. 
In all, more than 1.3 million juniors from 21,000 high schools entered the 2024 National Merit Scholarship Program by taking the 2022 Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test, which served as an initial screening of program entrants.
About 95 percent of the semifinalists are expected to attain Finalist standing and about half of the finalists will win a National Merit Scholarship, earning the Merit Scholar title.