Four seniors, Jacob Foster, Jared Pauletti, Tony Perez and Donald Snodgrass have a shot to qualify as National Merit finalists in February after being recognized as National Merit semifinalists recently.

“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.”

For Foster, the news took a few hours 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.”

This year, more than 250,000 PSAT/NMSQT takers nationwide identified themselves as Hispanic, and the National Hispanic Recognition Program honored more than 5,000 of those students.

“Being part of the National Hispanic Recognition Program not only looks excellent during your college application process but it can also lead to scholarship money as well,” counselor Christine Rostedt said.

“I’ve been taking so many tests going back to the eighth grade aiming for honors like this,” Kidd said. “I’m so happy it’s paid off, not only for myself but for so many of my classmates.”

Of more than 1.5 million high school juniors that took the Pre-SAT test in 2015, only 34,000 were named National Merit Commended. Seven commended locally were Patrick Turner, Alec Perez, Julia Kidd, Bradley Wersterfer, Bradie Dean, Brittany Rae and Aubrey Medrano.

“There are so many teachers and staff here who have helped all of us get where we are as seniors,” Rea said. “I think it’s great I get to share this with so many classmates. I think it’s a great reflection on our school and on Comal ISD.”

Superintendent Andrew Kim had great praise for the students.

“All of these students have set a great example of academic excellence for others in our district to follow,” Kim said. “We know the kind of work it takes to achieve this level of distinction, and we couldn’t be more proud of them.”