Hillgrove Student a Semifinalist in Scholarship Program

’s Nicole Mwaura was named this week as a semifinalist in the 48th annual National Achievement Scholarship Program. 

She is one of more than 1,600 black American high school seniors who are still in contention for 800 scholarships through the National Merit Scholarship Corporation. Scholarship money totals $2.4 million and will be awarded next spring to finalists in the program.

More than 160,000 high school juniors from across country requested consideration for the scholarship program when they took the 2010 Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test.

To move on as a finalist, semifinalists must have high academic performance, be endorsed and recommended by their principal, write an essay, and earn SAT scores that confirm their PSAT/NMSQT performance. The total amount of finalists is expected at 1,300, with the 800 scholarship winners chosen from that group.