YHS graduating senior Jacob Bies said he wouldn’t be where he is today without the staff at Yankton High School.

Bies was recently named a National Merit Scholar and received a $2,500 scholarship. In addition, he also received the University of Nebraska-Lincoln Chancellor’s scholarship, which covers his full tuition.

It’s a fine way to cap off his high school career, which officially comes to a close Sunday at the annual YHS commencement at the Summit Activities Center.

“The process starts out by students taking the PSAT (preliminary SAT) exam,” said Jacob’s father, Marc Bies, a counselor at YHS. “The National Merit group identifies the top 50,000 PSAT scorers. Commended students are the top 34,000, while the other 16,000 are considered national merit semifinalists.”

As a national merit semifinalist, Jacob also had to take the SAT exam to confirm his PSAT score. He also had to complete an application that showed his school provided academic rigor, a recommendation from a staff member, an essay and a list of extra-curricular activities.

“I had to write a 500 word essay about someone who inspired me,” Jacob said. “I chose to write about my grandmother, who died about a year ago. I wrote about her and her impacts on my life.”

He added that the entire application process, which began at the beginning of his senior year, was a little bit stressful.

“It was a lot of work for me,” Jacob said. “I had to compile a resume, fill out all of my extra-curricular activities and just make sure I had everything done for the application.”

He noted that writing the essay was a long process, but was able to have an English teacher at YHS look over the essay to make sure he had everything he needed.

“Mr. Crandall and Ms. Kuhl were instrumental in filling out the academic rigor and demographics forms,” Marc said. “We found out he was a finalist for the scholarship in February, and then found out he received the scholarship in March.”

Since beginning his academic career at YHS, Jacob has run cross country for four years, track for three years, been involved with the marching band, jazz band, concert band and, this year, took part in the one-act play and spring musical.

He said he is looking forward to attending UNL this fall.

“I really like the location of UNL — it’s not too far from home and is one of the bigger universities in the area,” Jacob said. “I also have family near Lincoln, and know the town a bit because my brother goes there.”

He also added that UNL has a good biochemistry program, which is his intended major.

“I also applied to USD, and it came down to the wire on deciding between the two schools,” Jacob said. “I thought UNL would be a better fit in case I decided to change my major.”

Nationally, 8,300 students either will receive the National Merit Scholarship, or a corporate sponsor scholarship.

“I’m extremely thankful he got the scholarship. Not just Jake, and not just us. It’s the fact that this school has provided the academic rigor for him to be able to succeed,” Marc said. “With that, he invested in that rigor and did what teachers asked him to do, and it all paid off with the scholarship.”

Jacob said he’s thankful for the teachers he has had over the years.

“I never had a teacher here that I felt wasn’t involved or supportive of their students, regardless of whether they were struggling or excelling,” he said. “Teachers here are always trying to lift students up further, and I’m blessed to have had that as part of my education here. I’m thankful and really honored and glad I had the support and help on the way there from family, teachers and staff members.”

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