Cape student identified as Merit semifinalist

A senior at Cape Central High School was named a semifinalist for the 2023 National Merit Scholarship on Wednesday.

Ibrahim Ahmad was the only student from Cape Girardeau to make the cut and be in the running for the award. Fifteen thousand students from across the United States will be chosen as finalists in February. If Ahmad makes it through the next round, he will be eligible for a $2,500 scholarship.

Ahmad said the prestige of the award opens many doors.

"When colleges see that on your resume, they also have their own scholarships," Ahmad said. "On top of that, there are corporate scholarships I can apply for. I applied through the Coca-Cola foundation. I'm thinking of calling up some local businesses to see if they have any scholarships available."

Ahmad says he wants to go into aerospace engineering and is looking at Purdue University and Georgia Institute of Technology as his top choices.

"I don't really want to shoot for Ivy League because they're too expensive. You get more bang for your buck at a school like Purdue," Ahmad said.

According to the National Merit Scholarship Corporation's website, semifinalists must fulfill several requirements, which include having a "consistently very high academic record" and earning a high score on either the Scholastic Assessment Test or American College Testing exams.

Ahmad says he's not too worried about keeping his grades up and is confident in the score of 34 out of 36 he made on the ACT.

He will also need to write an essay and obtain a recommendation from a school official. This last requirement may be the hardest for Ahmad to complete. He said he was home-schooled through eighth grade. He had one year in public school before the pandemic caused schools to shut down, so, he said, there were few opportunities for him to develop much of a relationship with any of his teachers.

"I'll probably ask my English teacher because she was my teacher last year, too. Plus, she's an English teacher -- so she's probably good at writing," Ahmad joked.

He said his mom was his teacher until he reached sixth grade.

"After that I was pretty much able to teach myself. I would just look at the textbook and do the exercises and tests. I gained that skill for studying on my own," Ahmad said. "I would say I learn more by looking up how to do something on my own than in school."

Except for advanced placement calculus, Ahmad said he took more general classes this year because he decided to take additional online classes for advanced placement physics II and computer science. He said he is also on the school's cross country and tennis teams and is considering joining the robotics club.

Ahmad said one thing that helped keep him disciplined is that his parents did not let him have a cellphone until he was 15. But he has one now.

"I don't know if I have that discipline much anymore," Ahmad said. "I'm a high school student now. There are distractions."