Sarasota County Schools has announced that 23 students throughout the district have been named National Merit Scholarship Semifinalists by the National Merit Scholarship Corporation. The National Merit Scholarship Program is an academic competition for recognition and scholarships that began in 1955. High school students enter the National Merit Program by taking the Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test (PSAT/NMSQT) and by meeting published program entry and participation requirements. More than 1.5 million juniors in about 21,000 high schools entered the 2021 National Merit Scholarship Program.
 
In September, these high-scoring students are notified through their schools that they have qualified as either a commended student or semifinalist. From the approximately 16,000 semifinalists, about 15,000 are expected to advance to the finalist level. In February 2021, they will be notified of this designation. In Sarasota, the following schools have National Merit Semifinalists:

Booker High School

Zephaniah W. Malka

Pine View School

Mary Jane Bailey
Emily Benson
Nicholas Butakow
Camille I. Edwards
Pragnya Govindu
Neel Gupta
James Hugglestone
Ziwei Jiang
Kiran Kadiyala
Grace Kim
Samuel Klopp
Julia B. Kourelakos
Finnegan M. Lear
Joseph Lu
Nicholas Paredes
Nora Povolish
Samantha Sineath
Rohitram Upendram

Riverview High School

Sawyer J. Dunn-Matrullo
Ashley R. Hodges

Sarasota High School

Haley J. Wood

Suncoast Polytechnical High School

Michael A. Moloney