October 17, 2023

Wimberley High School seniors Josh Bober (left) and Jacob Mantsh (right) have been named Commended Students in the 2024 National Merit® Scholarship Program. 

Bober and Mantsch are two of approximately 34,000 Commended Students across the United States, and achieved recognition by scoring highly on the 2022 Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test (PSAT/NMSQT). Commended Students' scores are among the top 4% nationally. 2023 WHS Graduate John Moore was named a Commended Student last year.

Both Bober and Mantsch have excelled in a multitude of ways at Wimberley HS. Mantsch was a member of the WHS UIL Science team, which qualified for the 4A State Meet last spring. Mantsch finished 5th overall in the competition and was the high scorer in Chemistry. Mantsch finished 20th in the State Science event as a sophomore. He has also been a participant in band.

Bober has competed in Speech and Debate events at WHS, as well as theatre, track, and UIL Academics. Along with teammate Kathryn McKinney, Bober placed 6th at the UIL 4A Cross Examination (CX) Debate State Championships last spring, and was fourth in Impromptu Speaking at the Texas Forensic Association (TFA) State Tournament - the first WHS student to place at the TFA meet. Bober was also fourth in Informative Speaking and 11th in Current Issues and Events at the 2023 4A UIL Academic State Meet. This school year, he and McKinney have already qualified for next spring's TFA State Meet in CX Debate.

In September, it was announced that WHS senior Brennan Ramsey qualified as a semifinalist in the 2024 National Merit® Scholarship Program. 

Bober (4th from left) and Mantsch (5th from left) pose with WISD Superintendent Dr. Greg Bonewald and the WISD Board of Trustees at its Oct. 16th meeting.