16 MBHS seniors named as National Merit Finalists

In October, 16 Mountain Brook High School seniors were named National Merit Semifinalists in the 2021 National Merit Scholarship Program.

“I am so proud of these students,” MBHS Principal Philip Holley said at the time. “Becoming a National Merit Semifinalist is a great accomplishment and is the culmination of many years of hard work in the classroom.”

Now Holley and these seniors have even more reason to feel proud.

All 16 of the students who were named National Merit Semifinalists last fall were recently named National Merit Finalists and will now be considered for National Merit Scholarships, according to a news release in mid-February from Mountain Brook Schools.

MBHS had more semifinalists — and now has more finalists — than any other high school in Alabama, according to MBS.

Mountain Brook’s finalists are listed below in alphabetical order:

► Matthew Bottcher

► Caroline Carwie

► Harry Evans

► Annya Evans-Martinez

► Teddy Feig

► Lilly Gilbert

► Sam Graham

► Ellie Hamilton

► Laurel Hand

► Emma Kao

► Ann Carlton Keller

► Emily King

► Fletcher Nunnelley

► Ethan Shunnarah

► Theo Simonton

► Catherine Taylor

They are now among a pool of 16,000 students — representing less than 1% of all U.S. high school seniors — in contention to become National Merit Finalists.

The 16 will contend for some 7,600 National Merit Scholarships worth more than $30 million total.

The whole process began in fall 2019 when more than 1.5 million juniors in about 21,000 high schools took the 2019 Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test (PSAT/NMSQT).