3 Livermore Students Awarded Corporate National Merit Scholarships

LIVERMORE, CA — Two students from Livermore High School and one from Granada High School received corporate-sponsored National Merit Scholarships, joining roughly 1000 high school students nationally and beating out thousands of competitors for the prestigious scholarships.

• Roxanne Frank, of Granada High School, received the National Merit Battelle Scholarship, awarded by the Ohio-based nonprofit that conducts research on emerging areas of science.
• Justin Lam, of Livermore High School, received the National Merit Robert Half Scholarship, awarded to the children of employees of the professional consulting and staffing firm.
• Simone Laney, of Livermore High School, also received the National Merit Battelle Scholarship Scholarship.

Each prize is sponsored by a different corporation, who awards the prize to applicants whose parents work for the company, who live in the community where the company serves, or plan to pursue college majors related to the company’s mission.

Most of the awards provide annual stipends of anywhere from $1,000-$10,000 a year for all four years at any regionally-accredited U.S. college or university.

Applicants are initially chosen based on receiving among the highest scores in their state on the 2020 Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test. In September 2021, 16,000 semifinalists were asked to complete a detailed scholarship application, which included writing an essay and providing detailed information about their extracurricular activities, awards, and leadership positions. Applicants also needed to have outstanding grades, be endorsed and recommended by a high school official, and earn high SAT or ACT scores.

College-sponsored Merit Scholarship awards will be announced between June 1 and July 11. By the end of 2022, 7,500 national finalists will have received a total of nearly $28 million in scholarships, according to the National Merit Scholarship Corporation.