Glastonbury's Lee Named National Merit Scholarship Winner

GLASTONBURY, CT - Owen Lee of Glastonbury High School has earned a National Merit University of Chicago Scholarship.

The latest round of National Merit Scholarship winners was announced on Wednesday.

Lee listed his likely career field to be diplomatic service on the scholarship application.

More than 1.5 million juniors in about 22,000 high schools entered the 2016 National Merit Scholarship competition when they took the 2014 Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test, which served as an initial screen of program entrants.

Last fall, about 16,000 semifinalists were named on a state-representational basis in numbers proportional to each state’s percentage of the national total of graduating high school seniors, according to merit scholarship officials.

Semifinalists were the highest-scoring program entrants in each state and represented less than 1 percent of the nation’s seniors, according to merit scholarship officials.

Each semifinalist was asked to submit a detailed scholarship application, which included writing an essay and provid- ming information about extracurricular activities, awards, and leadership positions. Semifi nalists also had to have an outstanding academic record, be endorsed and recommended by a high school official, and earn SAT scores that confirmed the qualifying test performance.