Pago Pago, AMERICAN SAMOA — The 2019 first place winner in the Islandwide Math Competition, Victor Chen is among the approximately 16,000 Semifinalists in the 66th annual National Merit Scholarship Program announced last month by the Illinois-based National Merit Scholarship Corporation (NMSC).

Information provided to Samoa News by NMSC public affairs office shows that Chen’s tentative college major is engineering and he is the only individual listed as a semifinalist from American Samoa.

From the approximately 16,000 Semifinalists, about 15,000 are expected to advance to the Finalist level, and in February they will be notified of this designation, according to an NMSC national news release.

NMSC, a not-for-profit organization that operates without government assistance, was established in 1955 specifically to conduct the annual National Merit Scholarship Program. (Information on: www.nationalmerit.org]