5 Amador Valley Students Awarded Corporate National Merit Scholarships

PLEASANTON, CA — Five Amador Valley High School students received corporate-sponsored National Merit Scholarships, joining roughly 1000 high school students nationally and beating out thousands of competitors for the prestigious scholarships.

• Derek Hu received the National Merit Battelle Scholarship, awarded by the Ohio-based nonprofit that conducts research on emerging areas of science.
• Margaret Huai received the National Merit Boeing Scholarship, awarded to children of employees of the aerospace company.
• William Huang received the National Merit Moody’s Scholarship, awarded to children of employees of the financial services and credit rating agency.
• Hyewon Jung received the National Merit Nvidia Corporation Scholarship, awarded to children of the employees of the Santa Clara-based software company.
• Maanas Anup Shah received the National Merit Siemens Scholarship, awarded by the electronics company to “exceptionally talented high school students.”

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.