CRANBERRY TWP — A dozen Seneca Valley students were honored in the National Merit Scholarship Program, including one senior named a semifinalist.

Daniel Spear, a senior at Seneca Valley Senior High School, is one of roughly 16,000 semifinalists in the nationwide program after being one of the highest-scoring takers of the Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test.

Of the roughly 16,000 semifinalists, about 15,000 typically advance to the finalist level and are notified in February of whether or not they advanced. There are 7,500 National Merit Scholarships being offered next spring, worth a combined more than $30 million.

To be a semifinalist, Spear had to be one of the highest-scoring entrants of the test in Pennsylvania, as the number of semifinalists is proportional to the percentage of graduating high school seniors from each state.

Eleven other Seneca Valley students were commended for their scholastic talents by the National Merit Scholarship Corporation, which conducts the scholarship program.Seniors Nicholas Foulkrod, Chris Helmsen, Kason Kunkelmann, Nick Nedzesky, Alex Neff, Shanker Pillai, Veronica Pimenova, Xavier Reese, Aidan Uher, Liam Volk-Klos and Merrick Wimer were named commended students as a result of their performance on the examination.Roughly 34,000 students nationwide are named commended students, and while they will not continue in the program they place among the top 50,000 scorers on the test.Bob Ceh, Seneca Valley senior high principal, said the 11 commended students “represent the talent and success of our academic programs.“We are very proud of all of them and are excited for their current achievement as well as their future potential,” Ceh said.