The faculty and staff of Pleasant Valley Community High School are pleased to announce that the following seniors were selected as National Merit Scholarship Finalists in the National Merit Scholarship Program: Darsh Balani, son of Dinesh and Preeti Balani of Bettendorf; Aditya Desai, son of Sahil and Swati Desai of Bettendorf; Grace Halupnik, daughter of Mark and Jennifer Halupnik of Bettendorf; Margaret Huang, daughter of Chang Huang and Kathryn Wang of Bettendorf; Maya Johnson, daughter of Thomas and Christine Johnson of Bettendorf; Paul Malachuk, son of Daniel Malachuk and Catherine Reinhardt of Bettendorf; Joseph Murphy, son of Richard and Janene Murphy of Bettendorf; Prakruti Pancholi, daughter of Sanjay and Karishma Pancholi of Bettendorf.
To become a Finalist, a Semifinalist must have an outstanding academic record throughout the high school years, be endorsed and recommended by the school principal, and earn SAT scores that confirm the student’s earlier qualifying test performance. The Semifinalist and a school official must submit a detailed scholarship application, which includes the student’s essay and information about the Semifinalist’s participation and leadership in school and community activities.
All National Merit Scholarship winners will be selected from this Finalist group. Merit Scholar designees are selected on the basis of their skills, accomplishments, and potential for success in rigorous college studies, without regard to gender, race, ethnic origin, or religious preference.
Merit Scholarship winners of 2020 will be announced in four nationwide news releases beginning in April and concluding in July. These scholarship recipients will join some 283,000 other distinguished young people who have earned the Merit Scholar title.