Newtown High School Student Wins National Merit Scholarship

NEWTOWN, CT — The National Merit Scholarship Corporation has awarded a Sandy Hook student a $2,500 scholarship.

Isha Mendiratta, a senior at Newtown High School, is among 2,500 Merit Scholar designees chosen from a talent pool of more than 15,000 finalists in the 2022 National Merit Scholarship Program.

Mendiratta is looking ahead to a career in biomedical engineering.

National Merit $2,500 Scholarship winners are the finalists in each state judged to have the strongest combination of accomplishments, skills, and potential for success in rigorous college studies, according to the NMSC.

This year’s program began in October 2020 when high school juniors took the PSAT/NMSQT, which served as an initial screen of program entrants. Last fall, the highest-scoring participants in each state, representing less than one percent of the nation’s high school seniors, were named Semifinalists on a state-representational basis. More than 16,000 semifinalists had an opportunity to continue in the competition.