Matt Kafker is a university student who maintains a personal GitHub page in addition to serving as a volunteer at several charitable organizations. An accomplished student, Matt Kafker was awarded the Andrew M. Dawson Physics Prize. He has also been named a National AP scholar and honored as a Commended Student by the National Merit Scholarship Program.
An academic competition, the National Merit Scholarship Program provides scholarships to high achieving students in the United States. Commended Students are just one of several recognition tiers in the program; others include semifinalists, finalists, and winners. Each year, just 50,000 out of 1.6 million students are selected to one of these groups.
To be eligible, students must first take the Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test (PSAT/NMSQT). In addition, applicants must be currently enrolled as a high school student, plan to attend college, and be a citizen of the United States or have applied for permanent residence. To advance past the initial screening and qualify for recognition, students must achieve the required selection index score on the PSAT/NMSQT, which factors in reading, language, writing, and math scores.
