Art,
To get text in 1/2 circle, used the Circle Text plugin.
On background layer I have created the outside layer of text - in the UI, Angle of Arc set to 180; Angle of Start -90 and Clockwise ticked. Radius set high - play around with setting.
Created a new layer - screenshot2 - created the next inside layer of text - in UI same settings as before, except Radius value reduced.
Then used Elipse tool to create circles - on new layer - setting brush wide as appropriate and using Object Align to centre.
Created new layer and created 1st text inside elipse - settings as before but reducing Radius.
Final text - "Distinction" - into another new layer - unticked Clockwise and adjusted settings until happy.