2017 Merit Scholarships: College-Sponsored Winner From Yorktown

YORKTOWN, NY — National Merit Scholarship Corporation announced the last of this year’s National Merit $2500 Scholarship winners Monday. They are winners of college-sponsored grants. The Merit Scholar designees were chosen from a talent pool of more than 15,000 outstanding Finalists in the 2017 National Merit Scholarship Program. One of the recipients goes to Yorktown High School.

Today’s release is the fourth announcement of winners in the 2017 National Merit Scholarship Program. On April 19, more than 1,000 recipients of corporate-sponsored Merit Scholarship awards were named, including 12 students from the Hudson Valley. On June 7 and July 17, some 4,000 college-sponsored Merit Scholarship winners were announced.

Officials of each sponsor college selected their scholarship winners from among the Finalists in the National Merit Scholarship Program who will attend their institution.

College-sponsored awards provide between $500 and $2,000 annually for up to four years of undergraduate study at the institution financing the scholarship.

This year, 182 colleges and universities are sponsoring more than 4,000 Merit Scholarship awards. Sponsor colleges include 103 private and 79 public institutions located in 44 states and the District of Columbia.

Winners in this round:

• Noah C. Jacobs of Armonk, Byram Hills High School
• Alexandra C. Schoepke, Briarcliff High School
• Raymond H. Zheng of Chappaqua, Horace Greeley High School
• Samantha Manimala of Elmsford, Briarcliff High School
• Amber G. Yang of Mamaroneck, Rye Neck High School
• Sara B. Gilbert of Mount Kisco, Fox Lane High School
• Zong Lam, Pearl River High School
• Zaiqian Chen of LaGrangeville, Arlington High School
• Jackson S. Mingle of South Salem, John Jay High School
• Caitriona Keane, Suffern High School
• Sidharth A. Anand, Yorktown High School

This final group of winners brings the number of 2017 National Merit Scholars to more than 7,500. These distinguished high school graduates will receive scholarships for undergraduate study worth a total of over $32 million. In addition to college-sponsored awards, two other types of National Merit Scholarships were offered—2,500 National Merit $2500 Scholarships, for which all Finalists competed, and approximately 1,000 corporate-sponsored Merit Scholarship awards for Finalists who met criteria specifi ed by their grantor organizations.

2017 National Merit Scholarship Competition

This year’s competition for National Merit Scholarships began when over 1.6 million juniors in more than 22,000 high schools took the 2015 Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test (PSAT/NMSQT®), which served as an initial screen of program entrants. In September 2016, about 16,000 Semifi nalists were named on a state-representational basis in numbers proportional to each state’s percentage of the national total of graduating high school seniors. Semifi nalists were the highest-scoring program entrants in each state and represented less than one percent of the nation’s seniors.

To become a Finalist, each Semifinalist had to complete a detailed scholarship application, which included writing an essay, describing leadership positions and contributions in school and community activities, showing an outstanding academic record, and being endorsed and recommended by a high school offi cial. Semifi nalists also had to take the SAT® and earn scores that confi rmed their performance on the initial qualifying test. From the Semifi nalist group, about 15,000 attained Finalist standing, and about half of the Finalists were chosen to receive National Merit Scholarships.

NMSC, a not-for-profit corporation that operates without government assistance, was in 1955 to conduct the National Merit Scholarship Program. Over the past 62 years, more than 330,000 outstanding young men and women have won National Merit Scholarships worth over $1 billion. The majority of awards offered each year are underwritten by approximately 420 independent corporate and college sponsors that support NMSC’s efforts to recognize scholastically talented youth and encourage the pursuit of academic excellence.

SEE ALSO:

• 2017 National Merit Scholarships: 43 Hudson Valley Students Named in 2nd Round
  
• 2017 National Merit Scholarships: 12 Local Students Named in First Round
  
• 2017 National Merit Scholarships: 24 Hudson Valley College-Sponsored Winners
  

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