Riverhead School District

Riverhead student honored in National Merit Scholarship program

Riverhead Central School District senior Clark Fischer has been named a National Merit Commended Student in the 2021 National Merit Scholarship program.

According to the National Merit Scholarship website, 34,000 of the approximately 50,000 high scorers on the PSAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test results receive letters of commendation in recognition of outstanding academic promise. Commended Students are named based on a nationally applied Selection Index score that may vary from year to year. 

Although Commended Students do not continue in the competition for National Merit Scholarships, some commended students become candidates for special scholarships sponsored by corporations and businesses, according to the National Merit Scholarship website.

Clark, 17, said didn’t expect to get this commendation, but he is grateful he got more than he expected from the PSATs. 

“A lot of it is the accomplishment of just trying hard to do well on the test and I guess getting something out of it more than just practice,” he said.

Chris Martin, Clark’s guidance counselor, said he is fun to work with.

“He has a nice profile, a very high GPA in the class and very high college test scores, plus he’s a great human being,” Mr. Martin said.

Clark is thinking about studying computer science at SUNY/Stony Brook University.