BOISE, Idaho — 28 Boise School District students have been named National Merit Semifinalists and they represent 27% of the state's total Semifinalists.
The National Merit Scholarship Corporation (NMSC) is granting 6,870 National Merit Scholarships worth nearly $26 million to students around the nation. More than 1.3 million high school juniors in about 21,000 high schools entered the 2025 National Merit Scholarship Program by taking the 2023 Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test, which served as an initial screen of program entrants. The nationwide pool of semifinalists represents less than 1% of U.S. high school seniors
Below are the names of the Boise School District's Semifinalists for the 2025 National Merit Scholarship Program:
- Naira Akhtar - Timberline High School
- Youssef Belhadj - Capital High School
- Owen Bolick - Boise High School
- Caleb Boyce - Boise High School
- Ethan Chen - Boise High School
- Grace Dale - Timberline High School
- Maibre Edwards - Timberline High School
- Reid Eichberg - Boise High School
- Benjamin Gallafent - Timberline High School
- Sophia Garcia-Buenrostro - Capital High School
- Addison Gibbons - Capital High School
- Logan Hansen - Borah High School
- Yuji Huff - Timberline High School
- Zachary Jones - Boise High School
- Katherine Kim - Timberline High School
- Carly Lane - Boise High School
- Pierre-Johann Lehn - Timberline High School
- Jayden Loo - Timberline High School
- Jalen Lu - Timberline High School
- Torsten Mikkola - Timberline High School
- Paige Porter - Timberline High School
- Raymond Schwartz - Capital High School
- Yvonne Shen - Boise High School
- McLaren Steffen - Timberline High School
- Sascha Stoll - Boise High School
- Towako Tamano - Timberline High School
- Alison Turcke - Boise High School
- Bryce Wood - Borah High School
"We are incredibly proud of this year's 28 National Merit Semifinalists and their remarkable academic achievements," said Boise School District Superintendent Lisa Roberts. "Having 27% of Idaho's National Merit Semifinalists come from our district, while we enroll only 7% of the state's public school students, is a clear testament to the academic excellence within the Boise School District."
To advance to the finalist level, semifinalists and a school official must submit a detailed scholarship application including leadership and extracurricular involvement, an outstanding academic record and several other requirements. The organization said that 95% of the semifinalists are expected to attain finalist standing and about half of the finalists will win a national merit scholarship and earn the Merit Scholar title.
