Torah Academy of Bergen Country is proud to announce that senior Akiva Sturm has been named as a finalist in the 2019 National Merit Scholarship Program. Of the over 1.6 million students who entered the National Merit Scholarship program by taking the Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying test, only about 15,000 finalists throughout the nation have been recognized for their exceptional academic promise. All winners of Merit Scholarship® awards (Merit Scholar® designees) are chosen from the finalist group based on their abilities, skills and accomplishments without regard to gender, race, ethnic origin or religious preference. A variety of information is available for NMSC selectors to evaluate: the finalist’s academic record, information about the school’s curricula and grading system, two sets of test scores, the high school official’s written recommendation, information about the student’s activities and leadership and the finalist’s own essay. TABC is proud of Akiva’s accomplishments and wishes him hatzlacha in the final stage of this competition.