Trinity Academy Senior Vesper Haley named National Merit Semifinalist

Seward, NE (10/12/2026) — Trinity Academy senior Vesper Haley of Seward, Nebraska, has been named as one of more than 16,000 semifinalists in the 72nd annual National Merit Scholarship Program. This identifies her within the top 1 percent of students in Nebraska who take the PSAT in their junior year. She is one of only two National Merit semifinalists from Seward this year.

The National Merit Scholarship Program recently announced that Haley and other academically-talented high school seniors have an opportunity to continue in the competition for about 6,700 National Merit Scholarships worth approximately $24 million that will be offered next spring. To be considered for a Merit Scholarship award, semifinalists must fulfill several requirements to advance to the finalist level of the competition. About 95 percent of the semifinalists are expected to attain finalist standing, and approximately half of the finalists will win a National Merit Scholarship, earning the Merit Scholar title.

"Vesper Haley has attended Trinity Academy since we opened our doors. She will be part of our second graduating class-the first to have spent all four years at Trinity," said Trinity Academy Head of School Kendra Scheck. "We are proud of Vesper and grateful for the opportunity to honor her hard work. She reflects what we hope for each of our students: she is dedicated, hardworking and articulate, as well as a kind and generous classmate. Being named a National Merit Scholarship Semifinalist is a tremendous accomplishment. We celebrate with Vesper as she continues through the scholarship process."

Over 1.2 million juniors in about 20,000 high schools entered the 2027 National Merit Scholarship Program by taking the 2025 Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test (PSAT/NMSQT), which served as an initial screen of program entrants. The nationwide pool of semifinalists, representing less than one percent of U.S. high school seniors, includes the highest-scoring entrants in each state. The number of semifinalists in a state is proportional to the state's percentage of the national total of graduating seniors. A semifinalist must have an outstanding academic record throughout high school, be endorsed and recommended by a high school official, write an essay, and earn SAT or ACT scores that confirm the student's earlier performance on the qualifying test.

From over 16,000 semifinalists, more than 15,000 are expected to advance to the finalist level, and in February they will be notified of this designation. All National Merit Scholarship winners will be selected from this group of finalists. Learn more about the National Merit Scholarship Corporation at https://www.nationalmerit.org/

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Concordia University, Nebraska

For more information contact: Amy Crawford, 402-643-7387, newsdesk@cune.edu

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