Three Starkville High School seniors have advanced to earn recognition as National Merit Finalists. Ahmed Hassan, Soul Park, and Madeline Tegt are among 15,000 students to achieve Finalist standing for their distinguished performance in the National Merit program.
The trio scored in the top one percent of students in Mississippi on the Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test.
To qualify as Finalists, Ahmed, Soul and Madeline wrote essays about an obstacle in life and how they overcame it. They also took the S A T and earned scores that confirm the PSAT/NMSQT performance that resulted in their selection as Semifinalists.
Ahmed is still considering where he'll attend college, but he plans to study artificial intelligence. Madeline, who is preparing to attend medical school, will attend the University of Wisconsin and pursue a bio medical degree. Soul plans to major industrial engineering at Columbia University.
Classmates since elementary school, Ahmed, Soul and Madeline shared their excitement and their achievement with each other.
"They're incredible students," Ahmed said of Soul and Madeline. "They're brilliant."
"It's an honor to share this recognition with Soul and Ahmed," said Madeline. "We're competitive, but we support each other."