ASFA Student And Vestavia Resident Named National Merit Scholar

BIRMINGHAM, AL - Vestavia Hills resident and a senior theatre arts student at the Alabama School of Fine Arts McGuire Price has been awarded a National Merit Scholarship. Price is one of only 33 Alabama students to receive the honor.

Price’s journey to being named a National Merit Scholar began in October 2017 when over 1.6 million juniors in approximately 22,000 high schools took the Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test, which served as an initial screen of program entrants.

Last fall, Price was selected as one of the highest-scoring participants in Alabama and named a Semifinalist. The 16,000 Semifinalists represent less than one percent of the nation’s high school seniors. From the Semifinalist group, some 15,000 students including Price, met the very high academic standards and other requirements to advance to the Finalist level of the competition.

National Merit $2,500 Scholarship winners are chosen from the finalists in each state who are judged to have the strongest combination of accomplishments, skills, and potential for success in rigorous college studies. The number of winners named in each state is proportional to the state’s percentage of the nation’s graduating high school seniors.

While at ASFA, Price has worked with Opera Birmingham, Red Mountain Theatre, Sidewalk Film Festival, Alabama Shakespeare Festival and he did a show at Northwestern University last summer.

Price will attend Northwestern University in the fall. He said he plans on double majoring with one of the majors being theatre.

"I would like to be a working actor and possibly start my own deaf theatre where the actors are both deaf and hearing," Price said. "I love American Sign Language and independent movies and also hope to one day work for an international film festival."