4 San Diego Students Awarded National Merit Scholarships

SAN DIEGO, CA — Four students in San Diego County have been awarded scholarships through the National Merit Scholarship Corporation.

• Catrina Brunkow of San Diego will attend Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology to study computer science. Catrina graduated from River Valley High School in Lakeside.
• Chandler Jiang of San Diego will attend the University of Southern California to study video game design. Chandler graduated from Canyon Crest Academy in Carmel Valley.
• Luis Maas of San Diego will attend Northeastern University to study law. Luis graduated from Francis Parker School in San Diego.
• Maya Whiteside of San Diego will attend the University of Southern California to study mechanical engineering. Maya graduated from Westview High School in San Diego.

These four high school graduates are among more than 1,000 students nationwide to receive a scholarship in this final list of awards for 2021, joining more than 3,100 other college-sponsored award recipients who were announced in June.

Each sponsor college selects scholarship winners from among the finalists in the National Merit Scholarship Program who will attend their institution.

Students receive between $500 and $2,000 annually for up to four years of undergraduate study at the college financing the scholarship.

This year, 160 colleges and universities sponsored over 4,100 Merit Scholarship awards. This final group of winners brings the number of 2021 National Merit Scholars to more than 7,500, worth a total of nearly $30 million.

In addition to college-sponsored awards, two other types of National Merit Scholarships were offered — 2,500 National Merit $2500 Scholarships, for which all finalists competed, and about 1,000 corporate-sponsored Merit Scholarship awards for finalists who met criteria specified by their grantor organizations.

The scholarship winners began their journey when over 1.5 million juniors at some 21,000 high schools took the 2019 Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test. That was whittled down to 17,000 semifinalists last fall. Semifinalists were the highest-scoring program entrants in each state and represented less than one percent of the nation’s seniors.

To become a finalist, each semifinalist had to complete a detailed scholarship application, which included writing an essay, describing leadership positions and contributions in school and community activities.

Some 16,000 attained finalist standing, and about half were chosen to receive National Merit Scholarships.