8 HV Students Win 2020 Corporate-Sponsored Merit Scholarships

HUDSON VALLEY, NY — The National Merit Scholarship Corporation announced this year's corporate-sponsored National Merit $2,500 Scholarship winners on Wednesday. The designees were chosen from a talent pool of more than 15,000 outstanding finalists in the 2018 National Merit Scholarship Program.

Eight of them are from Rockland and Westchester counties.

The 1,000 high school seniors awards are financed by about 160 corporations, company foundations, and other business organizations.

Scholars were selected from students who advanced to the Finalist level in the National Merit Scholarship competition and met criteria of their scholarship sponsors. Corporate sponsors provide National Merit Scholarships for Finalists who are children of their employees, who are residents of communities the company serves, or who plan to pursue college majors or careers the sponsor wishes to encourage.

Most of these awards are renewable for up to four years of college undergraduate study and provide annual stipends that range from $1,000 to $10,000 per year. Some provide a single payment between $2,500 and $5,000. Recipients can use their awards at any regionally accredited U.S. college or university of their choice.

More than 1.5 million juniors in 21,000 high schools entered the 2020 National Merit Scholarship Program when they took the 2018 Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test, which served as an initial screen of program entrants. In September 2019, some 16,000 Semifinalists were designated on a state-representational basis in numbers proportional to each state’s percentage of the national total of graduating high school seniors. Semifinalists were the highest-scoring program entrants in each state and represented less than 1 percent of the nation’s seniors.

By the conclusion of the 2020 competition, about 7,600 Finalists will have been selected to receive National Merit Scholarships totaling over $30 million. NMSC is expected to name recipients of National Merit® $2500 Scholarships and winners of college-sponsored Merit Scholarship awards later this spring.

Local students winning corporate based awards:

• Louis Truong of Congers. Probable career field: Biology Clarkstown High School North, New City. NATIONAL MERIT PFIZER INC SCHOLARSHIP
• Evan M. Hunter of Croton-on-Hudson. Probable career field: Consulting. Croton-Harmon High School. NATIONAL MERIT MARSH & MCLENNAN COMPANIES SCHOLARSHIP
• Taran Agnihotri of Hartsdale. Probable career field: Computer Science. John F. Kennedy Catholic High School, Somers. NATIONAL MERIT MCGRAW-HILL EDUCATION SCHOLARSHIP
• Kevin L. Wang of Mount Kisco. Probable career field: Economics. Horace Greeley High School, Chappaqua.v NATIONAL MERIT PEPSICO FOUNDATION SCHOLARSHIP
• Pujita Sunder of Ossining. Probable career field: Law. Ossining High School. NATIONAL MERIT PEPSICO FOUNDATION SCHOLARSHIP
• Sarah Belsky of Spring Valley. Probable career field: Accounting. Bais Yaakov of Spring Valley, Monsey. NATIONAL MERIT NEW YORK LIFE FAMILY SCHOLARSHIP
• Michael R. Carr of Thiells. Probable career field: Applied Mathematics. North Rockland High School, Thiells. NATIONAL MERIT GEICO SCHOLARSHIP
• Benelli S. Amosah of White Plains. Probable career field: Film Production. North Carolina School of Science and Mathematics, Durham, NC. NATIONAL MERIT WALGREEN CO. SCHOLARSHIP