H.S. Students From Buffalo Grove Win National Merit Scholarships

BUFFALO, IL — Local students have been awarded $2,500 scholarships from the National Merit Scholarship Corporation. The 2,500 students selected were were chosen from an initial screen of students taking the preliminary SAT test at more than 22,000 high schools across the country, the organization announced. The latest group of local Merit Scholar designees includes two students from Adlai Stevenson High School in Lincolnshire and one from St. Viator High School in Arlington Heights.

The winners were picked by a panel of college and high school staff who evaluated students by the difficulty of their academic record, test scores, activities in an out of school, an essay and a letter of recommendation. According to the organization, the number of students named in Illinois is proportional to the state's percentage of graduating high school seniors nationwide.

Among the local Merit Scholars are:

• Tanvee N. Patankar, a Adlai E. Stevenson High School student from Buffalo Grove who plans to pursue a career in economics
• Jeremy R. Yoder, a St. Viator High School student from Buffalo Grove who plans to pursue a career in Business administration
• Joshua Yoon, an Adlai E. Stevenson High School student from Lincolnshire who is currently undecided on his career path

The Evanston-based organization finances most of the single-payment scholarships, which can be used at any regionally accredited college or university in the country.

Last month, the organization named more than 1,000 recipients of corporate-sponsored awards mostly open to the children of employees of participating companies. In June and July, about 4,000 winners of college-sponsored National Merit Scholarships will be announced. By the end of this year's competition, more than $31 million in scholarships will have been awarded to about 7,500 students.

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