Six UCS students earn college-based National Merit scholarships

Six Utica Community Schools seniors are among 3000 national graduates and only 65 students statewide to earn additional scholarships through the National Merit Scholarship program.

Dylan Gaines, John Parke, Rebecca Roman, Alyssa Sanderson, Akshay Seenivasan and Adam Sieracki earned National Merit Scholarship grants financied by U.S. colleges and universities.

Scholarship awards were: Gaines from Michigan Technological University to study Computer Science; Roman from Michigan State University to study Music Composition; Parke from Michigan State University to study Computer Science; Sanderson from Michigan State University to study Environmental Biology; Seenivasan from Michigan State University to study Neuro Science; and Sieracki will pursue an undecided major from Blount Honors at University of Alabama.

Students have been offered scholarships between $500 and $2,000 annually for up to four years of undergraduate study through National Merit programs funded by colleges and universities.

Students initially qualify for the Merit program by being among the top one percent of students in the country taking the Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test.

This year, 19 UCS students were named finalists by National Merit Program based on their performance in the Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test.

Earlier this summer, the National Merit Corporation announced a first round of 2,500 college-sponsored grants and organization grants. Five UCS students earned scholarships from those merit competitions.