HORSHAM — Hatboro-Horsham School District is proud to announce that eight high school students have achieved Commended Student status in the National Merit Scholarship Program.

Sarah Cohen, Ryan Duffy, Meredith Lightstone, Anthony Mei, Meghan O’Leary, Genevieve Pilch, Sean Raymond and Jennifer Zhuang were named Commended Students. These students were among the 34,000 out of the 1.5 million students who scored highly on the Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test (NMSQT). Commended Students placed among the top five percent of 1.5 million students who entered the 2013 competition by taking the 2011 PSAT/ NMSQT test.

“We are very proud of these students’ achievements,” Hatboro-Horsham High School Dennis Williams Jr. said. “We are confident that these accomplishments represent just the beginning of many future successes for these talented young people.”

The National Merit Scholarship Program began in 1955 to recognize students for their academic excellence by providing them with scholarships. High school students become eligible for the program by taking the PSAT/NMSQT and meeting the program’s participation requirements.