Visual Artist Lorelei Lin is a National Merit Scholarship Semifinalist

A high school senior in the Visual Arts Program is a National Merit Semifinalist, and four seniors in the School of Music are Commended Students, Headmaster and High School Dean Martin Ferrell has announced.

As a Semifinalist, Lorelei Lin of Cornelius, N.C., is one of 16,000 academically talented students from across the nation who will compete for more than $30 million in scholarships. Less than one percent of high school seniors qualify as Semifinalists.

Commended Students from UNCSA include Josie Brand, a guitarist from Winston-Salem; Jessie Burdette, a violist from Winston-Salem; Irma Nelson, a pianist from Mebane, N.C.; and Ruth Shumway, a violinist from Charlotte.

Semifinalists qualify by taking the Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test (PSAT/NMSQT) at the specified time in high school, usually as juniors. Semifinalists are the highest scoring entrants in each state.

Commended Students, who make up more than two-thirds of the 50,000 high scorers on the PSAT/NMSQT test, will not continue in the competition for National Merit Scholarships, but some are eligible for special scholarships sponsored by corporations and businesses.

Lorelei works very hard both academically and artistically, and she has earned this recognition by the National Merit Scholarship Program. We’re proud of all of our students who were recognized, and we’re rooting for Lorelei to advance in the competition and win a college scholarship.

Martin Ferrell, Headmaster and High School Dean

“Lorelei works very hard both academically and artistically, and she has earned this recognition by the National Merit Scholarship Program,” said Ferrell. “We’re proud of all of our students who were recognized, and we’re rooting for Lorelei to advance in the competition and win a college scholarship.”

Last year, as a high school junior at UNCSA, Lin won three gold keys, a silver key and an American Visions Award nomination in the Scholastic Art and Writing Awards, the nation’s longest-running initiative supporting student achievement in the visual and literary arts.

More than 1.5 million juniors in about 21,000 high schools entered the 2021 National Merit Scholarship Program. To become a Finalist, a Semifinalist must have an outstanding academic record throughout high school, be endorsed and recommended by a high school official, and write an essay. From the approximately 16,000 Semifinalists, about 15,000 are expected to advance to the Finalist level, to be announced in February 2021.

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