Marquette Student Named US Presidential Scholar Semifinalist

Recent Marquette High graduate Jamie Park is one of fewer than 650 students from around the country to be named a semifinalist in the 2026 U.S. Presidential Scholars Program.

Each year, around 4,000 students nationally are named candidates for this program from the pool of more than 3 million high school seniors. Later this spring, up to 161 students from this group will be named as Presidential Scholars, one of the nation's highest honors for high school students. Park is one of only 12 semifinalists from the state of Missouri.

The U.S. Presidential Scholars Program was established in 1964 to recognize and honor some of our nation's most distinguished graduating high school seniors.

Students have the opportunity to become Presidential Scholars based on three paths of accomplishment. The majority of the scholars are selected on the basis of broad academic achievement, while other students are selected on the basis of their academic and artistic scholarship in the visual arts, the performing arts or creative writing and on the basis of their outstanding scholarship and accomplishment in career and technical education fields. Selection for candidates in the academic achievement path is, for the most part, made based on SAT and ACT scores.

Park plans to attend the University of Chicago in the fall to study economics and creative writing and continue her work with her nonprofit bakery, Mental Bakedown, which benefits the National Eating Disorders Association.

She ran cross country and track for four years for the Mustangs, was a contributing writer for the Clarkson Valley Stroll publication and is a fourth-degree black belt and master instructor in taekwondo.