Walnut Creek List: 2019 National Merit Scholarship Winners

WALNUT CREEK, CA — Two Walnut Creek students will receive $2500 National Merit Scholarships. They were chosen from a pool of more than 15,000 finalists in the 2019 National Merit Scholarship Program.

They and other California winners were 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, according to the National Merit Scholarship Corporation (NMSC).

Here are Walnut Creek's winners:

• Soren J. Bear, Walnut Creek resident, Probable career field: Physics
• Paige Martin-Holder, Walnut Creek resident, Probable career field: Biochemistry

The scholarships may be used at any regionally accredited U.S. college or university.

The scholarship recipients were selected by a committee of college admissions officers and high
school counselors using this criteria: academic records including difficulty level of subjects studied and grades earned; scores from two standardized tests; contributions and leadership in school and community activities; an essay written by the finalist; and a recommendation written by a high school official.

On June 5 and July 15, more than 4,000 college-sponsored Merit Scholarship winners will be announced. By the conclusion of this year’s competition, about 7,600 students will have won National Merit Scholarships worth more than $31 million.

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