It was just four years ago when Yolanda Ni, then an eighth-grader at Oak Grove Middle School, spelled the word “apothecary” to win the 2019 Mississippi Spelling Bee in Jackson, which earned her a spot in the 92nd Scripps National Spelling Bee.
Now, as a graduating senior at Oak Grove High School, Ni has continued that path of success, recently being named a winner of one of the $2,500 scholarships offered by the National Merit Scholarship Corporation each year. On May 10, the corporation announced that Ni is one of 2,500 Merit Scholar designees from around the country who were chosen from a talent pool of more than 15,000 outstanding finalists in the 2023 National Merit Scholarship Program.
“It really was such a huge honor, and honestly a surprise, to get to the semifinals (of the competition),” Ni said. “I was overjoyed.
“But in a way, I guess it was also kind of validating. It was definitely a huge honor.”
Each year the National Merit Scholarship Corporation identifies students across the United States who have scored at a very high level on the Preliminary SAT and National Merit Scholarship qualifying test as semifinalists. The nationwide pool of semifinalists, representing less than one percent of United States high school seniors, includes the highest scoring entrants in each state.
Qualifying scores vary from state to state and from year to year, but the scores of all semifinalists are extremely high.
Approximately 2 million high school students across the country apply each year for the National Merit Scholarship Program. In February, approximately 15,000 semifinalists are notified by mail at their home addresses that they have advanced to finalist standing. High school principals are notified and provided with a Certificate of Merit to present to each finalist.
Scholars are selected by a committee of college admissions officers and high school counselors, who appraised a substantial amount of information submitted by both the finalists and their high schools That includes the academic record, including difficulty level of subjects studied and grades earned; scores from the Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test; contributions and leadership in school and community activities; an essay written by the finalist; and a recommendation written by a high school official.
“I believe the first step was getting nominated by the counselors at (Oak Grove) High School,” Ni said. “If I’m remembering correctly, I had to send in some short-answer responses to their essay prompts before October 31 (of last year).
“Then after that, you get chosen to apply for the actual program, and I think I got an email about that in January, and I had to answer more essay prompts. Then in mid-March or so, I got notified that I had become a semifinalist, then a month later they updated me again about the final round.”
Ni said she was shocked to learn she had been chosen for the scholarship.
“I know there are so many extremely qualified and accomplished high-schoolers,” she said. “Honestly, when I found out, I was shocked because I saw the types of people who also passed to the next round, and I thought, ‘whoa – how am I here?”
Ni plans to use the scholarship to attend the Jacobs School of Music at Indiana University Bloomington, which, according to QS World University Rankings, ranks seventh among performing arts universities worldwide, and second in the United States. There, she will continue her lifelong concentration on the violin.
“Violin has been such a huge part of my life,” Ni said. “I don’t think I’ve loved anything the way I love playing music and expressing myself via music.
“I don’t think I would have the same passion for anything else.”
