River Ridge Student Wins National Achievement Scholarship

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National Merit Scholarship Corporation announced this week the names of roughly 800 outstanding black high school seniors who have won Achievement Scholarship® awards through the National Achievement Scholarship Program, including three from the Cherokee County School District.

These awards, which exceed $2 million, are financed by grants from 30 corporate organizations and professional associations, and by National Merit Scholarship Corporation.

The winners from the Cherokee County School District are:

Austin P. Floyd, Cherokee High School
National Achievement Scholarship
Career Field: Aerospace Engineering

Langston H. Leake, Sequoyah High School
National Achievement USG Corporation Scholarship
Career Field: Law

Felicia N. Williams, River Ridge High School
National Achievement Scholarship
Career Field: Biochemistry

From the semifinalist pool announced in the fall, some 1,300 advanced to the finalist level, and the 800 National Achievement Scholarship winners were selected from this group of outstanding students. Achievement Scholar awardees are the finalist candidates judged to have the strongest record of accomplishments and greatest potential for academic success in college.

The National Achievement Scholarship Program is a privately financed academic competition established in 1964 specifically to honor scholastically talented black youth and to provide scholarships to a substantial number of the most outstanding participants in each annual competition.

By the conclusion of the 2015 program, which marks the 51st annual competition, over 34,200 participants will have received scholarships for undergraduate study worth about $108 million. The program is conducted by National Merit Scholarship Corporation, a not-for-profit organization that operates without government assistance.

The Achievement Scholar designees announced include 700 recipients of National Achievement® $2,500 Scholarships. All students who advanced to the Finalist level in the 2015 competition were considered for these single-payment scholarships, which were awarded on a regional representation basis in proportion to the population of Black Americans in each geographic region.

About 100 scholars are winners of corporate-sponsored Achievement Scholarship awards. These winners were selected from finalists who met the specific criteria of their grantor organizations. Most are residents of an area served by the sponsor, children of the organization’s employees, or finalists planning to pursue a college major or career the sponsor wishes to encourage. Almost all corporate-sponsored scholarships are renewable and provide stipends that can vary from $500 to $10,000 per year, but a few provide a single payment between $2,500 and $5,000.

About 150,000 students entered the 2015 National Achievement Scholarship Program by requesting consideration in the competition when they took the 2013 Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test (PSAT/NMSQT®) as high school juniors.

In September 2014, approximately 1,600 of the highest scorers were named semifinalists on a regional representation basis. To continue in the competition, semifinalists had to fulfill requirements for finalist standing, which included having a record of consistently high academic performance; being endorsed and recommended by an official from their high school; earning SAT® scores that confirmed their PSAT/NMSQT performance; and writing an essay.

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