Indianola senior Heather Willmott has been named as a National Merit Scholar Semifinalist. The National Merit Scholarship is an academic competition for recognition and scholarships that began in 1955, and only 16,000 students are chosen to be a semifinalist nationwide. Superintendent Art Sathoff tells KNIA News this honor, along with several students being selected as Heisman Scholarship winners, says a lot about the district, but more about the students.

“We do have tremendous students and many of them are driven to pursue these things. From a district perspective, we try to prepare our students well and give them opportunities to excel and I think this is a recognition of that. I became aware of Heather Willmott being a semifinalist for the National Merit Scholarship, that was announced a little bit earlier this fall. She’s still in the running for that, it’s probably one of the most prestigious academic things a student can compete for so we wish her well as she continues on.”

For more information, tune in to today’s Let’s Talk Indianola.