The National Merit Scholarship is a major accomplishment for high school students. GHS is fortunate to have two students as semi-finalists: Emma Baker and Chris Remetta. 

“When our juniors take the National Merit qualifying test, which is the PSAT, that qualifies them to be in this initial competition. To be a semi-finalist, they just look for the highest score,” Mrs. Laug, guidance director, said.  

The National Merit Scholarship has many different ways of providing money to qualifying students. 

“From this scholarship, you can get money in a variety of ways. Corporations may come in and say ‘We are going to give scholarships out’. Some colleges will give a full-ride tuition if you reach the finalist level. They might also just give you chunks of money,” Mrs. Laug said.

Baker already had this scholarship in mind when taking the PSAT. 

“I knew it was hard to get, but I had it as a goal that I really wanted to get the scholarship. So, I took it, and I got my score back, and it was a lot higher than I expected it to be because I had a good score the first time but not as good as my second one. It counts your reading and writing more than it counts your math so that really helped me,” she said.

The scholarship is important but some had other goals. 

“My biggest goal was just to get the highest score possible. The rest was just to place high enough to be able to qualify. I am just really grateful that it went the way I wanted it to,”  Chris Remetta, senior, said.

Some people are fortunate enough to be exceptional test takers. 

““I think I took a couple practice tests here and there, but I think I did the dumb thing and winged some of it. I pretty much just went online for resources because there are a lot of good practice tests out there,” Remetta said.

It seems to be a trend to just rely on the knowledge they already had for the PSAT.

“I actually did not prepare for the PSAT. We did practice things in class, and I would do that, but the ones that my junior teacher gave me I didn’t prep for. I had already taken the PSAT, and I think it was pretty comparable to any standardized test. I find myself to be a really good test taker, so they don’t freak me out. You know I slept some the night before,” Baker said. 

Not only did Baker do exceptionally well on the PSAT, but she also qualified for the Lily scholarship. The Lily scholarship requires a lot more from the contestants, but GHS administrators helped her prepare.

“They had me go down during my first period class, and they just sat down and asked me questions that they had from previous years. It was kind of intimidating because it was early in the morning and I was not super prepared, but I think that it was really helpful because they then gave me a whole list of a bunch of the questions so I was able to prep. It allowed me to not know exactly what I wanted to say but to have an idea, and I think it made my interview go a lot smoother,” Baker said. 

The actual interview process was quite an experience for Baker. 

“I got emailed on Wednesday night about being a finalist and there are six interview spots for that Sunday, so it was a really quick turnaround of like you have to be prepared. So then I showed up at the Community Foundation Office, which you have to drive through a cemetery to get to, so that was a little ominous. It is this huge table, and they usually tell you to shake hands when you go into interviews, but you literally can’t because they are like ‘Sit!’. The people ranged in age from 25-60 years old. There are probably 10-12 people that are interviewing you. It is really intimidating, but they are all super nice and they listen intently and they write down all your answers. The questions ranged all over the place from what fictional character I would want to spend an hour with and what talent I would want to my thoughts on the impact that social media has on our generation,” Baker said. 

The Lily scholarship is not just an opportunity for students, it has lots of purpose behind it. 

“I think the goal is to not just support students and do scholarships, but I think an overall goal is to keep our talent in Indiana local. So, one of the requirements for the Lily scholarship is that the student has to go to an in-state school,” Mrs. Laug said.