Seniors Ariele Ladabaum and Carmen Vescia were named National Merit finalists Feb. 17 by mail at their homes and are 1 percent of all U.S. students who entered the competition.

   The National Merit Scholarship Program is designed to recognize the United States’ academically talented students through the PSAT and the SAT. To enter the program, students have to take the PSAT no later than the third year of high school, be enrolled in high school and planning to graduate and/or go to college that fall after school lets out.

   “I was pretty excited, but then again it wasn’t super surprising to me because I knew that I was above the cutoff for California, so I kind of assumed that I would be a semifinalist,” said senior and National Merit finalist Ariele Ladabaum. “But I was still excited when I found out.”

   These two Sequoia students were selected over the 1.5 million other students to be recognized in the program, the 50,000 recognized students to become semifinalists, and over the 16,000 semifinalists to become finalists.