Troy High School seniors Aden Nave (left) and Katie Hansbarger (right) have earned the National Merit Commended Scholars honors from the National Merit Scholarship Corporation.
Courtesy photo
TROY — Two Troy High School seniors have been named Commended Scholars by the National Merit Scholarship Corporation.
Katie Hansbarger and Aden Nave earned the honor based on their PSAT scores from the October 2021 testing. They were among the top 50,000 scoring students in the nation. The top 16,000 of those students earn National Merit Semifinalist honors.
“I felt really excited and I was really happy to be recognized,” Hansbarger said about finding out she was a National Merit Commended Scholar. “School is really important to me. It’s probably the biggest thing in my life, and I like to take advanced classes and work really hard.”
Hansbarger is a member of National Honor Society, ASTRA, Spanish Club, Math Club, cross country, track, color guard and winter guard. She plans to attend college and likely will study something in the science field or possibly business. She’s exploring her college options.
“I was very surprised,” Nave said of finding out he was a Commended Scholar. “I knew about our National Merit Semifinalists, and I thought, ‘Ugh, that could have been me.’ But I was very happy to be recognized for my hard work.”
Nave plays the french horn in the Troy High School band. He plans to study environmental engineering in college. His dream school is Oregon State University, but he’s also looking at Ohio State University.
