3 Stamford Students Win National Merit Scholarships

STAMFORD, CT — Last week, officials from the National Merit Scholarship Corporation (NMSC) announced this year's National Merit $2,500 Scholarship winners.

Overall, 2,500 winners were selected from a talented pool of 15,000 students.

Among the winners are three students from Stamford: Arjun Anand, from Westhill High School; Sachi Laumas, a Stamford resident who attends Greenwich Academy; and Noam E. Bellin-Schonfeld, a White Plains, N.Y. resident who attends school at the Bi-Cultural Hebrew Academy of Connecticut in Stamford.

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.

The number of winners named in each state is proportional to the state's percentage of the nation's graduating high school seniors.

These scholars were selected by a committee of college admissions officers and high school counselors, who appraised a substantial amount of information submitted by both the finalists and their high schools: the academic record, including difficulty level of subjects studied and grades earned; scores from the Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test (PSAT/NMSQT); contributions and leadership in school and community activities; an essay written by the finalist; and a recommendation written by a high school official.

Scholars may use their awards at any regionally accredited U.S. college or university.

On April 27, about 1,000 recipients of corporate-sponsored Merit Scholarship awards were named, and on June 1 and July 11, some 4,000 college-sponsored Merit Scholarship winners will be announced.

By the conclusion of this year's competition, about 7,500 academic champions will have won National Merit Scholarships worth approximately $28 million.