National semifinalists for the 69th annual National Merit Scholarship Program were announced last month, and the list includes five students from Hopkinton High School: Abigail Baskin, Bableen Gill, Zachary Krymgold, Prisha Shrivastava and Amanda Xie.

More than 16,000 high school seniors from a pool of about 1.3 million applicants were named semifinalists and have an opportunity to continue in the competition for some 7,140 National Merit Scholarships worth nearly $28 million that will be offered next spring. The nationwide pool of semifinalists, representing less than 1% of U.S. high school seniors, includes the highest-scoring performers in the 2022 Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test in each state.

Chess player earns recognition

Hopkinton Middle School student Dattasi Kilari was awarded the title of candidate master by the United States Chess Federation. Kilari, a seventh grader, earned the status after competing in the 82nd New England Open Chess Tournament in Westford on Sept. 4. He played in the Championship Section, which includes all ages and titles, including grand master, international master and national master.

Colleges honor local students

Hopkinton residents Tyler Chesters, Elizabeth Demont and James Wine were named to the president’s list while Jennifer Townsend was named to the dean’s list for the summer term at Southern New Hampshire University. …

Andrew Nealon graduated magna cum laude with a degree in kinesiology from James Madison University in August. …

At Worcester Polytechnic Institute, junior Alopa Waje (biomedical engineering major) recently completed a project titled “Recommending Collection Management Systems to The Postal Museum,” while junior Nicholas Rogerson (computer science major) completed a project called “Effectiveness of License Plate Readers in Acadia.” All undergraduates at WPI are required to complete a research-driven, professional-level project that applies science and technology and addresses an important societal need or issue. …

Sean McCann and Jasmine Crook were named winners of Elmira College Key Awards in the spring. A tradition that goes back to 1935, the Key Award is presented to outstanding students in their junior year of high school or preparatory school. This year’s award was given to 783 students in 16 states.