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<p>All four Beaufort County School District students named last fall as semifinalists in the 2019 National Merit Scholarship Program have advanced to the next level of competition.</p>
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<p>Selected as national finalists were Pierce Daly (Hilton Head Island High); Meaghan Lyons (Hilton Head Island High); Faith Shupard (May River High); and Alan Wiser (Beaufort High).&nbsp;</p>
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<p>They will compete with 15,000 national finalists for college scholarships worth more than $31 million.&nbsp;</p>
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<p>About 1.6 million high school juniors from more than 22,000 American high schools entered the 2019 National Merit Scholarship Program by taking the Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test.&nbsp;</p>
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<p>To advance to the final round of competition, each semifinalist had to submit a detailed application that provided information about the student’s academic record, participation in school and community activities, leadership abilities, honors and awards.  In addition, each semifinalist had to be endorsed and recommended by a high school official, write an essay and earn SAT scores that confirmed the student’s earlier score on the qualifying test.</p>
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<p>The National Merit Scholarship Corp. is a nonprofit established in 1955, and its scholarships are underwritten by NMSC with its own funds and more than 400 businesses and higher education institutions.</p>
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