Pearl River High School Student Wins National Merit Corporate Scholarship

A Pearl River HIgh School student has been named a National Merit Scholarship winner for 2016.

Matthew R. Ding of Orangeburg is the recipient of a National Merit Pfizer Inc. Scholarship. Scholarship officials said his probable career field will be Computer Science.

This is the first round of National Merit Scholars for 2016 to be announced.

More than 1,000 distinguished high school seniors have won corporate-sponsored National Merit Scholarship awards financed by about 200 corporations, business organizations and company foundations.

Organizers said scholars were selected from students who advanced to the Finalist level in the national competition.

Corporate sponsors provide the 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 career the sponsoring corporation wishes to encourage.

The scholarships, many of which are renewable for up to four years of college undergraduate study, provide annual stipends that range from $500 to $10,000 per year. They can be used at any regionally accredited U.S. college or university they choose.

Over 1.5 million juniors in approximately 22,000 high schools entered the 2016 National Merit Scholarship competition by taking the 2014 Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test, which was the initial screening of entrants.