Basking Ridge Student Wins National Merit Scholarship Award

Three Pingry seniors, including Basking Ridge's Danielle Cosentino, were selected as winners in the 2010 National Merit Scholarship Program, in its 55th year of honoring students who show exceptional academic ability and potential for success in rigorous college studies. Approximately 8,200 National Merit Scholarships, worth more than $36 million, are being offered.

Pingry, located in the Martinsville section of Bernards Township, enjoyed a successful year in the National Merit program, with 14 semifinalists (they placed in the top one percent of more than 1.5 million students who entered the 2010 competition) and 33 Commended Students (among the top three percent) being named prior to the selection of the three winners.

Danielle Cosentino, a resident of Basking Ridge, is the recipient of the New Jersey Manufacturers Insurance Group Scholarship, a special scholarship sponsored by New Jersey Manufacturers Insurance Group.

Samuel Fisher, a resident of Westfield, is the recipient of the National Merit New York Life Family Scholarship, a corporate scholarship sponsored by New York Life Foundation. It is worth $8,000.

Neha Srivastava, a resident of Short Hills, is the recipient of a National Merit $2,500 Scholarship, underwritten by the National Merit Scholarship Corporation (NMSC).

To enter the 2010 program, students took the 2008 Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test (PSAT/NMSQT)—the national pool of semifinalists included the highest-scoring entrants in each state. To advance to the finals, a semifinalist must have demonstrated an outstanding academic record throughout high school, been endorsed and recommended by the school principal, and earned SAT scores that confirmed the earlier qualifying test. The scholarship application included information about the student's participation and leadership in school and community activities. Approximately 15,000 semifinalists advanced to the finals.

About The Pingry School:

The Pingry School is recognized throughout the United States for its academic excellence, Honor Code, arts, athletics, and universal concern among faculty for each student in the school. The school's mission is to foster in students a lifelong commitment to intellectual exploration, individual growth, and social responsibility, while preparing them to be global citizens and leaders of the 21st century. It does this by providing an unparalleled intellectual experience for its students while guiding their development as people of honor and character. Pingry, a K-12 coeducational, independent country day school, was founded in 1861 in Elizabeth, New Jersey by Dr. John F. Pingry and is spread over two campuses: K-5 in Short Hills and Grades 6-12 in Martinsville. Enrolling approximately 1,060 students from 106 communities and 14 counties across New Jersey and Pennsylvania, the school encourages multiculturalism and inclusion. For more information visit the school's web site, www.pingry.org.