Mears, Okubo semifinalists for National Merit Scholarships

Parker J. Mears and Thomas K. Okubo of Belleville High School have been announced as Semifinalists for a 2024 National Merit Scholarship.
Parker J. Mears is the son of Angela and Todd Mears of Van Buren Township.
He currently is ranked first out of 423 students in his class with a cumulative grade point average of 4.74. Parker is in Chess Club, National Honor Society (NHS), Marching Band, Symphony Band and is a member of the Soccer, Science Olympiad, Robotics and Track teams.
Parker plans on applying to the Computer Science Program at the College of Engineering at the University of Michigan.
Thomas K. Okubo, is the son of Shunsuke Okubo of Van Buren Township and Carol Okubo of Dearborn. He is ranked second in his class at BHS, just behind his good friend Parker Mears.
Thomas is an accomplished leader in band and swimming. He is a Drum Major for the Marching Tigers, principal euphonium for Symphony Band, and plays trombone in Jazz Band.
In swimming, he is a two-time MHSAA D1 State Meet qualifier and KLAA All-Conference honoree. He holds one BHS varsity record, tied a second one, and set six sophomore records.
Thomas is a National Honor Society member. In his free time, he is a lifeguard at the Metropark and enjoys coding and publishing apps. Thomas plans to pursue a career in biomedical engineering.
The semifinalists were announced Sept. 13. The National Merit® Scholarship Program honors individual students who show exceptional academic ability and potential for success in rigorous college studies. The program does not measure the quality or effectiveness of education within a school, system, or state.
More than 16,000 Semifinalists in the 69th-annual National Merit Scholarship Program were announced Sept. 13. These academically talented high school seniors have an opportunity to continue in the competition for some 7,140 National Merit Scholarships worth nearly $28 million that will be offered next spring.
To be considered for a Merit Scholarship® award, Semifinalists must fulfill several requirements to advance to the Finalist level of the competition.
About 95% of the Semifinalists are expected to attain Finalist standing, and approximately half of the Finalists will win a National Merit Scholarship, earning the Merit Scholar® title.
NMSC, a not-for-profit organization that operates without government assistance, was established in 1955 specifically to conduct the annual National Merit Scholarship Program.
Scholarships are underwritten by NMSC with its own funds and by approximately 320 business organizations and higher education institutions that share NMSC’s goals of honoring the nation’s scholastic champions and encouraging the pursuit of academic excellence.
In the 2024 competition, more than 1.3 million juniors in about 21,000 high schools entered the 2024 National Merit Scholarship Program by taking the 2022 Preliminary SAT / National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test (PSAT/NMSQT®), which served as an initial screen of program entrants. The nationwide pool of Semifinalists, representing less than one percent of U.S. high school seniors, includes the highest-scoring entrants in each state. The number of Semifinalists in a state is proportional to the state’s percentage of the national total of graduating seniors.
To become a Finalist, the Semifinalist and a high school official must submit a detailed scholarship application, in which they provide information about the Semifinalist’s academic record, participation in school and community activities, demonstrated leadership abilities, employment, and honors and awards received. A Semifinalist must have an outstanding academic record throughout high school, be endorsed and recommended by a high school official, write an essay, and earn SAT® or ACT® scores that confirm the student’s earlier performance on the qualifying test.
From over 16,000 Semifinalists, more than 15,000 are expected to advance to the Finalist level, and in February they will be notified of this designation. All National Merit Scholarship winners will be selected from this group of Finalists. Merit Scholar designees are selected on the basis of their skills, accomplishments, and potential for success in rigorous college studies, without regard to gender, race, ethnic origin, or religious preference.
National Merit Scholarship winners of 2024 will be announced in four nationwide news releases beginning in April and concluding in July. These scholarship recipients will join nearly 375,000 other distinguished young people who have earned the Merit Scholar title.