Jim Sesser is a point of pride for Natchez High School – he has just been named a National Merit semi-finalist.

A senior at Natchez High, Sesser has taken the PSAT, or Preliminary Scholastic Aptitude Test only once and scored a 207. He has taken the American Achievement Test or ACT several times with a high score of 31.

The National Merit semi-finalist designation places Sesser in the top 2 percent of high school seniors nationwide. Only 169 students in the state of Mississippi earned the designation.

A Natchez native, Sesser is the son of Nolan and Frances Sesser. His mother is a second-grade teacher at McLaurin Elementary School and his father is a construction supervisor at Edgin Construction. His younger brother David is a sophomore this year.

Sesser found out Sept. 8 that he was a National Merit Semi-finalist.

&uot;I was pretty excited,&uot; he said.

Computer science is Sesser’s main interest, and he hopes to become a systems analyst. He built and maintains his own web site at www.geocities.com/SiliconValley/Byte/8626 and a web site for the technology center at Natchez High. He built them from scratch.

&uot;I like to play with the computer in my spare time,&uot; Sesser said.

An Eagle Scout, Sesser also plays second-chair trumpet in the high school band. Sesser sees himself as just another member of a fast-paced family becoming all the more fast-paced as he files university applications.

&uot;My first choice is Mississippi State,&uot; he said.

His junior year was spent at the Mississippi School for Math and Science in Columbus. Sesser said he enjoyed MSMS, but he wanted to come back to Natchez for his senior year.

Sesser will take the Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT) before December of this year and will learn in mid-February whether he goes on to National Merit finalist status.

&uot;About 90 percent of semi-finalists go on to become National&160;Merit finalists,&uot; said Cheryln Hester, school counselor. &uot;I know Jim will represent us well.&uot;