Senior, Dominick Heidorn, has been recognized as a National Merit Semifinalist. This nomination is highly competitive and is only given to around 16,000 of the top 50,000 scorers on the PSAT. Approximately 1.6 million entrants are examined for this scholarship.

“Learning test-taking skills and managing time spent for each question compared to others is very helpful,” Heidorn advises on taking tests, “being comfortable with reading quickly and scanning for major deals or paragraphs that stick out is also a great time saver for these sections.”

Heidorn adds, “doing my homework and classwork for Marist [also prepared me], and the teachers and classmates prepared me.”

Being named a semifinalist is an accomplishment as there are other benefits. “I am invited to be a finalist (for the scholarship), where I have a chance at money for college through the organization,” Heidorn states, “most of the finalists receive some kind of package, and some colleges will grant their own scholarships to semi-finalists and finalists independent of the organization, and those vary greatly from school to school.”

While at Marist, Heidorn has been a member of the volleyball team, math team, and National Honor Society. He hopes to continue his education at the University of Arizona, Purdue, Iowa State or the University of Illinois Urbana Champaign.

As of right now, he wants to play volleyball for fun or club volleyball at which every college he decides to attend.