Comal ISD continues to produce some of the nation’s top academic performers.

This school year, the district is proud to announce six students were named National Merit Semifinalists.

Smithson Valley High School’s Jacob Foster, Jared Pauletti, Tony Perez and Donald Snodgrass, Canyon High School’s Sophie Machalec and Memorial Early College High School’s Jeffrey Malone all received the prestigious honor of being named National Merit Semifinalists.

Malone became the first-ever National Merit Semifinalist from Memorial Early College High School, which opened in 2010.

“Honestly, with as many great students as we have at this campus, I’m surprised it hasn’t been accomplished here before,” Malone said. “Hopefully others will see it can be done and we will have many more National Merit Semifinalists at the Early College High School in the future.”

Of more than 1.5 million juniors in more than 22,000 high schools who took the Pre-SAT test in 2015, only 16,000 were named National Merit Semifinalists. Of the 16,000 semifinalists, 15,000 students will be named National Merit Finalists in February. Half of those students will be selected as Merit Scholarship winners, earning the Merit Scholar title.

Foster, Pauletti, Perez, Snodgrass, Machalec and Malone have a chance to follow in the footsteps of the likes of Bill Gates, a National Merit Scholarship winner in 1973. National Merit Finalists have the opportunity to earn individual scholarships from many corporations, colleges and universities around the nation.

“It’s such an honor to be able to share this with so many of my classmates – we’ve always taken pride in being a high-achieving and competitive group,” Snodgrass said. “It’s always a great thing to represent your campus and your school district at the highest academic level. It also shows what an excellent learning environment we have in Comal ISD.”

Foster said it took a few hours for the news to sink in.

“It was all a blur of excitement at first,” Foster said. “I don’t think it really hit me until my I got home and my entire family was congratulating me.”

Superintendent Andrew Kim said he couldn’t be more proud of the distinguished students.

“These students have set a great example for others in our district to follow,” Kim said. “They have achieved one of the highest academic honors in the country. Credit also goes to the teachers who gave these students the critical thinking and leadership skills to reach this esteemed plateau.”