Seneca Valley School District has announced that seniors back row, from left, Rishin Sharma, Ryan Lipscomb, Jacob Geil and Scott McElhinny; and front row, from left, Victoria Beck and Katherine Bablak are among 15,000 semifinalists across the nation for the 2019 National Merit Scholarship Program.

JACKSON TWP — Six Seneca Valley High School seniors are semifinalists in the 2019 National Merit Scholarship Program.

Officials of National Merit Scholarship Corporation announced Katherine Bablak, Victoria Beck, Jacob Geil, Ryan Lipscomb, Scott McElhinny and Rishin Sharma as having the opportunity to continue in the competition for some of the 7,500 scholarships worth more than $31 million that will be offered in the spring, according to a news release from the district.

Four other seniors, Tiffany Eaton, Bradley Hartman, Jarrett Johnston and Sneha Padamati, were named National Merit Scholarship qualifiers and may be candidates for special scholarships provided by corporate and business sponsors later in the year.

“I was really excited,” Katherine “Katie” Bablak said. “It's a long time between taking the test and finding out, so it was definitely a surprise to think about it again. It's really an honor to be chosen for something like this.”

“I think that a lot of people going in to take it don't really take it seriously because you don't submit the score for college,” Katie said, “but I thought it was a really good way to practice for the SAT, and if you manage to qualify, it's a really cool opportunity and something that doesn't take that long to prepare for.”

Other Butler County National Merit semifinalists include Nathan C. Ellis from Butler High School, Anthony M. Rivetti and Olivia Solverson of North Catholic High School and Nicole Ambrose of Knoch High School.

About 1.6 million juniors in more than 22,000 high schools entered the 64th annual scholarship program by taking the 2017 Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test, which serves as an initial screen of program entrants.