Senior Pierre Mason is a National Merit Semifinalist. 

He sat down with a reporter to talk about his achievements.

Q: Does it surprise you that you’re a National Merit Semifinalist? 

A: “ I’m not really surprised because I was expecting it, but it still feels good.”

Q: What do you want out of this achievement going forward? 

A: “The thing I want the most is just the scholarships it’ll get me because colleges find a lot of value in the title, so it’ll help me get scholarships.”

Q: Have you ever felt discouraged in your academic years?

A: “Well I remember when I took the test, the PSAT that gives you the scholarship. After I finished it, I was feeling really bad. I thought I did terribly on the test, so that was pretty discouraging just because I thought I did a bad job. But it turns out I didn’t do that bad.”

Q: What are some of your earliest accomplishments? 

A: “I guess pretty early like elementary school. They thought I was good enough at math that I had to go to the middle school to take math.

Q: What inspires you?

A: “My sister is a pretty big inspiration because she did this stuff, too, so I’m kind of like following in her footsteps…. She’s pretty inspirational.”