SOUTH POINT — A student at the Tri-State STEM+M Early College High School was recently named a semifinalist in the 65th Annual National Merit Scholarship Program.

Bella Schrader, 16, of Chesapeake, is part of an elite group of students across the nation to receive this honor.

She will have an opportunity to continue in the competition for some 7,600 National Merit scholarships worth more than $31 million that will be offered in the spring. The nationwide pool of semifinalists, representing less than 1 percent of U.S. high school seniors, includes the highest-scoring entrants in each state.

Schrader is a senior at the STEM+M school, located on Solida Road in South Point, where she has excelled as a student leader and peer mentor.  She is part of a school virtual reality team that has received the People’s Choice Award at two different university-sponsored competitions.

Schrader is fluent in Spanish and her favorite subject is math.  She plans to study biomedical engineering in college.