Time is money for South Whidbey High School senior Kari Hustad. After all, she’s juggling school work and extracurricular activities on a daily basis.
So, when Hustad spends the better part of a week working on something, it’s not something to be taken lightly.
Hustad is in contention to be a National Merit Scholarship finalist in the National Merit Scholarship program, an annual award competition for recognition and university scholarships. Hustad qualified for the award after being named a semifinalist. She is among the top 1 percent in the nation based on her high scores in the PSAT, joining a small list of around 16,000 other students. With the help of her English teachers Jaryl Cave and Jennifer Gandarias, she submitted an extensive application that includes her SAT scores, essays and extracurricular activities.
The applicant field will be cut in half to 8,000 students after judges evaluate the students’ applications.
Though she hasn’t started on college applications yet, she agreed that the scholarship’s application process was a solid warmup.
“I spent a lot of time on my application so I really hope they select me,” said Hustad with a laugh. “It’d be pretty cool.”
She is the first South Whidbey senior in the past eight years to vie for the prestigious award. It’s already paid dividends – Hustad said universities in the Pacific Northwest are already sending her letters congratulating her on the achievement.
To qualify, students must take the PSAT, which is also a national merit scholarship qualifying test, in October of their junior years. The students’ scores in reading, writing and math are then compared to other students across the nation and in their state and selected using an index that puts students above or below a certain baseline that determines who qualifies as semifinalists.
Hustad said that while she was certainly aiming for the achievement, it wasn’t her top priority. She’s been heavily involved in bringing the high school’s drama program back to center stage alongside fellow senior Chloe Hood with productions of last year’s “Almost Maine” and musical “Footloose,” which is set for the first two weekends in November in the high school’s auditorium.
It wasn’t until she got back her scores on the PSAT when it dawned on her that she might have a chance. She stacked her score of 1490 (out of 1510) against the Washington baseline from previous years and saw it as being above it. Then it became a waiting game.
“It was like, ‘Whoa, maybe this is a possibility,” Hustad said. “But, they don’t let you know until a year later. I was kind of on pins and needles for an entire year waiting to find out.”
Hustad took the PSAT her freshman and sophomore years, which she said helped prepare her for the test she would be evaluated on.
“A lot of it was just preparing for the SATs, but I’m really, really glad that I took them all of those years,” Hustad said. “I would definitely recommend it to any student, because it’s the best preparation I think you can get.”
The award could also mean a cheaper price tag for school down the road.
“You can qualify to get some scholarship money and it looks really good to colleges,” Hustad said. “A lot of schools will give you financial aid based on that.”
A pair of Hustad’s teachers saw her award as being a validation of what they already knew about her work ethic and demeanor.
“In my experience, she not only wants to get the job done, but wants to understand what’s going on,” said Greg Ballog, a biology teacher. “She enjoys learning.”
“A National Merit Scholarship is just a by-product of the way she approaches learning,” he added.
Gandarias has also picked up on Hustad’s innate curiosity with classwork. She has only one flaw.
“She does not excel at sleep,” Gandarias joked.
“She excels at pretty much everything she tries because she’s willing to give it the time and investigation it needs. So that’s why she doesn’t sleep. She’s working hard,” she added.
