Two Anne Arundel Students Win National Merit Scholarships

Updated June 6, 2022

PASADENA, MD — Two students from Anne Arundel County were among those who received 2019 National Merit Scholarships.

Connor Parker of Severn, a graduate of Chesapeake Science Point Charter School, is the winner of the $2,000 National Merit University of Maryland Scholarship. He attended the University of Maryland Baltimore County.

Parker graduated from UMBC cum laude in bioinformatics and computational biology in December of 2021.

In 2020, he was part of a team that published “HIV-1 Matrix Protein Interactions with Cellular tRNAs” research in the Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology.

He completed the Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) Program at Scripps Research Institute, La Jolla, California, during the summer of 2021.

Parker is currently on staff as a scientific software developer at Rutgers University with the RCSB Protein Data Bank. He will begin study toward his PhD in genomics and computational biology in August at the University of Pennsylvania.

The other winner is Jenna Maria Snead of Pasadena, who attends Archbishop Spalding High School in Severn. A press release says she will likely study engineering in college.

A panel of college admissions officers and high school counselors judged the students based on their accomplishments, skills and potential for success in rigorous college courses, the National Merit Scholarship Corporation said in a release. The judges looked at grades, difficulty of courses, standardized test scores, contributions and leadership both in school and in the community, an essay and a recommendation from a high school official.

The number of winners in each state was proportional to the state's share of the nation's graduating high school seniors. Additional winners will be named in June and July. By the end of the year, about 7,600 students will have won merit scholarships totaling more than $31 million. The money can be put toward any regionally accredited college or university in America.

The merit scholarship program was created in 1955. Students in grades nine through 12 vie for academic recognition and financial support. About 1.6 million students take the qualifying test every year and about 50,000 of the highest scorers have the chance to be considered.