Ten Fox Chapel Area High School seniors have been designated as National Merit semifinalists and 17 have been named commended students in the 2026 National Merit Scholarship Program. The semifinalists are Michael Costello, Riley Hemingray, Alan Jiang, Eloise Johnson, Ulyana Kubini, Joanna Li, Gavin Lynch, Rodrigo Silva, Yash Tahiliani and Helen Xu. The Commended Students are Marin Airik, Arman Alborzi, Tobias Conklin, Greta Erdner, Laila Golla, Charles Hahl, Nora Kelley, Steven Li, James Manges, Max Melocchi, August Mierwald, Dayna Mullan, Zehra Ozkaya, Zachary Rubin, Joshua Shah, Joseph Shin and Ian Wellman.
All of these students were selected based on their 2024 Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test (PSAT/NMSQT) scores. The semifinalists represent less than one percent of the nation’s high school seniors and the commended students scored in the top 5%.
The semifinalists now have the opportunity to advance to the Finalist level and compete for some 6,930 National Merit Scholarships worth nearly $26 million to be offered in the spring of 2026.
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The Fox Chapel Area High School Marching Band won first place in the Class AA division at the Pennsylvania Interscholastic Marching Band Association competition held Sept. 27 at Yough Senior High School. Additionally, the band also received awards for the highest music, general effect, and visual scores in its division. The theme of this year’s show is “From the Ashes.”
The band is under the student direction of drum majors senior Sophia Nugansiri and junior Nadre Digbohou, and band directors/teachers Daryl Lesnik, Evan Hertrick, Joshua Branker and Karli Umholtz.
The Fox Chapel Area High School Marching Band was also participating at the PIMBA competition at Mt. Lebanon High School on Oct. 4, and will participate in the PIMBA Championships Oct. 18 at Deer Lakes High School.
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Claire Gallagher has been named to the dean’s list at James Madison University for the summer 2025 semester. She is pursuing a bachelor of science in psychology.
