4 Ridgewood Students Named National Merit Scholars

RIDGEWOOD, NJ — Four village students are National Merit Scholarship winners.

Sarah Nathanson and Preeyanka P. Rao received scholarships from Loews and S&P Global, respectively. Nathanson wants to study computer programming in college while Rao hopes to go into the public health sector.

Two other students, David J. Song and Elizabeth Zhou, each received a $2,500 scholarship from the National Merit Scholarship Corp.

The four students attend Bergen County Academies in Hackensack.

Scholarships were awarded to students who advanced to the finalist level of the National Merit Scholarship competition. Most of the awards are renewable for up to four years of college undergraduate study.

Some scholarships, like Nathanson's and Rao's, were awarded as part of the national corporate-sponsored scholarship program.

More than 1.6 million high school juniors entered the 2017 National Merit Scholarship Program when they took the 2015 Preliminary SAT. About 16,000 semifinalists were chosen for consideration for a scholarship based on their outstanding academic records, completion of an essay and other criteria.

Send local news tips, photos, and press releases to daniel.hubbard@patch.com. Get Patch breaking news alerts sent right to your phone with our new app. Download here.

Image via Shutterstock