Two Oyster Bay High School seniors, Adrian Kim and Brandon Antonetti, have been named National Merit Finalists, and they will now advance to the final stage of the scholarship competition.
“They’re really great kids,” said Melissa Argaman, the high school’s principal.
Argaman and supervisor of guidance Joy-Anne D’Anca joined the district about four years ago. They said that Kim and Antonetti are the first National Merit Finalists to be selected from the high school in recent years.
“We had a semifinalist last year, and now this year, we have the two finalists,” D’Anca said. She said the district is hopeful that there is a “growing trend” of student recognition.
Argaman said both Kim and Antonetti are “modest” and “hardworking” students who are involved in a diverse amount of extracurricular activities.
The school said Kim ranks among the top five students in his class. The district said he excels in his mathematics courses and has demonstrated strong leadership skills in his AP Seminar course. In addition to his academics, Kim is on the varsity basketball team and volunteers with the North Shore Community Church food pantry.
Antonetti was recognized as an honorary marshal at 2024 Oyster Bay High School’s graduation, which is given to the top four students in the following class, the school said.
They said that, outside of his academics, Antonetti had played the piano since age five and had begun composing music at eight years old. Over this past summer, he had an internship where he specialized in neurological monitoring during high-risk surgeries.
The school said Kim aims to study business or economics in college and Antonetti aims to pursue a medical degree, specializing in internal medicine.
Kim and Antonetti were recognized as semi-finalists in September and recently received notification of their promotion to finalist status. The competition considers students’ PSAT and SAT scores, academic records, extracurricular activities, and personal essays.
“This prestigious recognition is a testament to the dedication to academic excellence and their extraordinary for future success,” said Superintendent Francesco Ianni at the Feb. 25 board of education meeting.
Ianni said approximately 1.3 million students from 21,000 high schools nationwide applied to the competition. Approximately 16,000 students are named semi-finalists and 15,000 move on to the final round, he said.
“This means Adrian and Brandon are among the top 1.1% of high school students in the country,” Ianni said.
All finalists receive a Certificate of Merit in recognition of their performance, according to the National Merit website. The website says of the 15,000 finalists, there will be 6,870 Merit Scholarship winners and 710 Special Scholarship recipients, which will be announced starting in April.
“We are so proud as a community,” Ianni said.
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