JACKSON TWP — Six Seneca Valley High School seniors have been named finalists in the 64th Annual National Merit Scholarship Program held by the National Merit Scholarship Corporation.

Katherine Bablak, Victoria Beck, Jacob Geil, Ryan Lipscomb, Scott McElhinny and Rishin Sharma are six of about 15,000 finalists who will advance to the next level of the program where they will have the opportunity to earn a National Merit Scholarship and the Merit Scholar title.

About 1.6 million juniors in more than 22,000 high schools entered the 2019 National Merit Scholarship Program by taking the 2017 Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test, which served as an initial screen of program entrants.

National Merit Scholarship Corporation, a not-for-profit organization that operates without government assistance, was established in 1955 specifically to conduct the annual National Merit Scholarship Program.

Scholarships are underwritten by the corporation with its own funds and by about 420 business organizations and higher education institutions that share goals of honoring the nation’s scholastic champions.