{"id":33723,"date":"2024-11-02T11:23:20","date_gmt":"2024-11-02T11:23:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.localmedianj.com\/?p=33723"},"modified":"2024-11-02T11:23:20","modified_gmt":"2024-11-02T11:23:20","slug":"westfield-high-school-national-merit-semifinalist-and-commended-students","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.localmedianj.com\/?p=33723","title":{"rendered":"Westfield High School National Merit Semifinalist and Commended Students"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em><u>Westfield High School students have been recognized for their exceptional academic promise as Commended Students in the 2025 National Merit Scholarship Program.\u00a0 <\/u><\/em><\/p>\n<p>Westfield High School 12th grader Garrett Gao has been named a 2025 National Merit Semifinalist, among a nationwide pool of about 16,000 semifinalists who represent less than one percent of U.S. high school seniors. As a Merit semifinalist, Gao has the opportunity to continue in the competition for National Merit Scholarships that will be offered next spring.<\/p>\n<p>The following WHS students have been recognized for their exceptional academic promise as Commended Students in the 2025 National Merit Scholarship Program as well.\u00a0 They are:<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_33725\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-33725\" style=\"width: 300px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-33725\" src=\"https:\/\/www.localmedianj.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/WHS.National-Merit-Semifinalist.Garrett-Gao.9.26.24-300x210.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"210\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.localmedianj.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/WHS.National-Merit-Semifinalist.Garrett-Gao.9.26.24-300x210.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.localmedianj.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/WHS.National-Merit-Semifinalist.Garrett-Gao.9.26.24.jpg 700w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-33725\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Westfield High School 12th grader Garrett Gao has been named a 2025 National Merit Semifinalist. Pictured here with Acting WHS Principal Thomas Paterson.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p><em>Kevin Deegan<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Benjamin Duan<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Tristan Ferrier<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Michael S. Fisher<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Ann Luchsinger<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Jake Pardes<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Ethan Selvers<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Aanand Shah<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Neil Shastri<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Owen Wei<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Riley Whitlock<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Calvin Woodruff<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Westfield High School students have been recognized for their exceptional academic promise as Commended Students in the 2025 National Merit Scholarship Program.\u00a0 Westfield High School 12th grader Garrett Gao has been named a 2025 National Merit Semifinalist, among a nationwide pool of about 16,000 semifinalists who represent less than one percent of U.S. high school [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":33724,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[164,151],"tags":[],"post_flags":[],"class_list":["post-33723","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local-education","category-westfield-local"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.localmedianj.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33723","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.localmedianj.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.localmedianj.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.localmedianj.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.localmedianj.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=33723"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.localmedianj.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33723\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":33726,"href":"https:\/\/www.localmedianj.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33723\/revisions\/33726"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.localmedianj.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/33724"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.localmedianj.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=33723"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.localmedianj.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=33723"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.localmedianj.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=33723"},{"taxonomy":"post_flag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.localmedianj.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fpost_flags&post=33723"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}