National Merit Scholarship semifinalist at Geneva HS

For the third year running, Geneva High School has a National Merit Scholarship semifinalist.This fall, the National Merit Scholarship Program named senior Iuliu Balibanu a semifinalist.“Iuliu is an outstanding young man,” said Principal Greg Baker. “I am very proud of Iuliu, the school and its teachers, and the district for supporting the kind of programming that leads to students being able to attain this sort of accolade.”Previous semifinalists Betty Peng ’13 and Eavan Schmitt ’12 went on to become National Merit Scholars. “It is exceedingly rare to have consecutive National Merit Scholars,” said Baker. “No other school in the Finger Lakes has accomplished this feat.”Also this year, senior Thomas Schmitt (Eavan’s brother) was named a Commended Student by the National Merit Scholarship Program.Approximately 16,000 Semiﬁnalists were named in the 59th annual National Merit Scholarship Program. These academically talented high school seniors have an opportunity to continue in the competition for some 8,000 National Merit Scholarships worth about $35 million that will be offered next spring.About 34,000 Commended Students were recognized for their exceptional academic promise. These students placed in the top five percent of more than 1.5 million students who entered the 2014 competition by taking the 2012 Preliminary SAT.