Middletown Student Wins National Merit Scholarship

MIDDLETOWN, CT — Middletown’s Richard I. Nakatsuka was among the approximately 3,500 National Merit Scholarship winners for 2018, the National Merit Scholarship Corporation (NMSC) recently announced.

The National Merit Scholarships are financed by U.S. colleges and universities, and officials from each sponsor college select their scholarship winners from among the Finalists in the 2018 National Merit Scholarship Program who plan to attend their institution.

"These awards provide between $500 and $2,000 annually for up to four years of undergraduate study at the institution financing the scholarship," states NMSC. "An additional group of Scholars will be announced in July, bringing the total number of college-sponsored Merit Scholarship recipients in the 2018 competition to about 4,000."

For 2018, 178 higher education institutions are underwriting Merit Scholarship awards through the National Merit Scholarship Program. Those sponsor colleges and universities include 100 private and 78 public institutions located in 44 states and the District of Columbia, according to NMSC.

The college-sponsored Merit Scholarship winners are a part of the distinguished group of about 7,500 high school seniors who will receive National Merit Scholarships for college undergraduate study worth a total of more than $31 million. Earlier this spring, NMSC announced winners of corporate-sponsored Merit Scholarship awards and National Merit $2500 Scholarships.

Nakatsuka, whose probable career field is architecture, was given the following award:

NATIONAL MERIT TUFTS UNIVERSITY SCHOLARSHIP

Tufts University, located 6 miles from Boston, offers the personal attention of a small college and the options of a complex university. Among the options available to the 4,400 undergraduates in liberal arts and engineering are self-designed majors, the experimental college, independent study, an honors program, double-degree programs, internships, study abroad, a semester in Washington, and ROTC. Over 150 clubs, organizations and sports reinforce the balance at Tufts.

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