Sachem High School East senior Tharini Prakash and High School North senior Paige Menneci have been selected as semifinalists in the National Merit Scholarship Program. 

Tharini is president of the English Honor Society and treasurer of class government. She is also an active member of the National, Foreign Language, Math, History and Science honor societies. 

Paige has been an Advanced Placement student since ninth grade and boasts perfect NYSSMA scores from grades eight through 12. She is a member of the National Honor Society, for which she also serves as secretary, as well as the Foreign Language and Science honor societies.      

More than 1.6 million juniors from high schools across the country entered the 2018 National Merit Scholarship Program by taking the 2016 Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test. The nationwide pool of 16,000 semifinalists represents 1 percent of U.S. high school seniors and includes the highest-scoring entrants from each state.

In February, 15,000 semifinalists will be selected to advance to finalist standing.