Hahnville High School’s Cooper Matherne and Avery Oertling have kept their eye on the prize.
The senior classmates are among the 15,000 students having earned the distinction of National Merit Scholarship finalist, something each said they marked as a goal to strive for.
Candidacy begins with the PSAT/NMSQT taken during the students’ junior year. Roughly 7,600 student winners receive scholarships worth over $33 million annually. Top scorers (less than 1% of seniors) are named semifinalists. To become a finalist, each student must submit a detailed application, including a high school transcript, principal recommendation, essay, and qualifying SAT/ACT scores.
Matherne said after taking the PSAT as a freshman and sophomore and posting good scores, he realized he could potentially hit a qualifying score for the National Merit Scholarship as a junior. That junior year PSAT score is what initially qualifies one for the distinction.
“Then you have to submit an application that includes either your ACT or SAT score to basically confirm the PSAT wasn’t a fluke,” Matherne said.
It was not.
Matherne earned a perfect score of 36 on the ACT, something less than a quarter of a percent of the 1.4 million students who take the test annually achieve.
He is a drumline captain for the Hahnville High marching band and the Corps Commander for ROTC. He is president of the HHS Interact Club and of its National Honor Society, and vice president of the HHS Spanish Honor Society. He also tutors several students weekly.
“I really like having an impact on others … it’s such a great thing seeing students improve,” said Matherne, who lends tutoring to students of grade levels ranging from elementary through high school.
He said he has made a point of encouraging sophomores at HHS who have posted strong test scores to take the PSAT and try to qualify for the merit scholarship program.
“This one test could give you so many opportunities,” said Matherne.
Oertling said the honor was something she’d worked very hard for, and that it felt great to see that work pay off.
While on a trip to help her sister move into her dorm at Mississippi State University, Oertling looked into some of the area schools and the potential scholarship opportunities that might be available.
“My dad suggested going to look at some schools and seeing what kind of scholarships could be available … Ole Miss and Mississippi State had interested me. And I saw that at Ole Miss specifically, as well as a few other schools there, just being a semifinalist would earn me a full tuition,” Oertling said. “And as a finalist, it would be four years of housing and a chance to study abroad.”
She decided to go for it.
“I knew if I worked hard for it, I was capable of it. It would take the pressure off of figuring out where to go, it would open some doors for me,” she said.
She indeed plans to go to Ole Miss, and she’ll likely stay quite busy there, too. At Hahnville, she is captain of the girls cross country tram and a member of the track and field team. She’s a member of the Hahnville Hi-Steppers dance team – helping the squad earn multiple national championship honors during her time as a dancer.
Oertling also stays involved with Hahnville theatre – and she earned a Thespy award at the International Thespian Festival for a perfect score in solo musical theatre dance. She is a member of Interact, Student Council and the Superintendent’s Student Advisory Council.
