11 Bergen Seniors Named National Merit Scholars, Win $2,500

BERGEN COUNTY, NJ — Eleven graduating seniors in Bergen County won a $2,500 scholarship in the 2022 National Merit Scholarship Program after months of waiting and hard work.

The 2,500 Merit Scholar designees were chosen from a talent pool of more than 15,000 outstanding finalists. Merit Scholars for each state are "judged to have the strongest combination of accomplishments, skills, and potential for success in rigorous college studies," a news release said. They will each get a $2,500 scholarship for their first year of college.

A committee selects Merit Scholars based on a number of things: the student's academic record, leadership roles and community activities, a recommendation from a high school official, an essay from the student, and the student's score on either the Preliminary SAT or National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test, the news release said. These students would have taken the PSAT or Qualifying Test in fall 2020, when they were juniors.

Here are the Bergen County winners, listed by school.

Northern Highlands Regional H.S., Allendale

• Elizabeth Mouravi, who plans to study medicine.
• Hailey Pataki, who plans to study business.

Bergen County Academies, Hackensack

• Isabella Hong, who plans to study chemical engineering.
• Nadia T. Ghetie, who plans to study medicine.
• Rohit V. Mantena, who plans to study surgical medicine.
• Seton T. Liu, who plans to go into academia.

Northern Valley Regional High School, Demarest

• Josephine Chang, who plans to study biomedical engineering.
• Andre Bijan van de Ven, who plans to study biology.

Bergen County Technical High School, Teterboro

• Justin J. Jang, who plans to study political science.

Ramsey High School

• Caroline E. Joo, who plans to study medicine.

Idea School, Tenafly

• Sarah M. Gorbatov, who plans to go into medical research.

Corporate scholarship winners were announced earlier this spring. A dozen Bergen County students are on that list.