Jinmook Kang of San Diego Named National Merit Finalist

Jinmook Kang

Jinmook Kang of San Diego (zip code 92130), a senior at Mercersburg Academy (a boarding school in Pennsylvania), has been selected as a finalist in the 2017 National Merit Scholarship Program. Kang is one of just 15,000 students nationwide to earn the honor, and advances to compete for one of 7,500 National Merit Scholarships; students chosen as National Merit Scholars will be announced in the spring and early summer.

Kang has been named a distinguished or commended scholar in each of his seven academic terms since arriving at Mercersburg as a 10th-grade student in fall 2014. He is a dormitory prefect and a member of the school’s varsity boys’ soccer and boys’ squash teams, and has also played lacrosse. Kang is a member of The Fifteen (an invitation-only honor society of 15 students), was named a 2016 AP Scholar with Distinction, is involved in Mercersburg’s Advanced Program for Global Studies (MAPS), and has volunteered with Special Olympics Maryland.

Mercersburg Academy is an independent, coed boarding and day school with approximately 440 students enrolled from 29 American states and 48 nations; Kang is one of nine students from California enrolled this year. The school, which was founded in 1893, is located just north of the Pennsylvania-Maryland state line, approximately 90 miles northwest of Washington, D.C., and 40 miles west of Gettysburg, Pa.

Kang was chosen as a National Merit Semifinalist in fall 2016, and five of his senior classmates were named Commended Students in the program (also this fall). About 1.6 million 11th-grade students in more than 22,000 U.S. high schools entered the 2017 program by taking the 2015 Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test in fall 2015. The National Merit Scholarship Corporation is a not-for-profit, privately funded organization that was established in 1955.

For more information about Mercersburg Academy, visit www.mercersburg.edu. (Alumni of the school include Academy Award-winning actors Jimmy Stewart and Benicio Del Toro, former U.S. Attorney General Dick Thornburgh, NBC Sports anchor Rebecca Lowe, and Cincinnati Bengals linebacker Vincent Rey.)