3 National Merit Scholarship Winners With Ties To Lakewood

LAKEWOOD, OH — More than 3,200 winners of National Merit Scholarships have been announced, and three recipients have ties to Lakewood. Two students attend St. Edward High School and a third attends Lakewood High.

All winners were selected from a pool of finalists in the 2017 National Merit Scholarship Program. Each student plans to attend the university sponsoring their scholarship. The awards range between $500 and $2,000 annually for up to four years of undergraduate study. (Stay in the loop with all things local by subscribing to the Lakewood Patch newsletter.)

The three recipients from Lakewood are: Ian Bell (Lakewood High), Andrew Blonsky (St. Edward), and Christopher Dombrosky (St. Edward). Dombrosky is the only one of the three with plans to remain in Ohio, as he intends to attend the University of Cincinnati to study electrical engineering.

Bell will attend Carleton College, a private college outside of Minneapolis, Minnesota. He plans to pursue a career in academia.

Blonsky is attending the Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology, a science and engineering college outside of Terra Haute, Indiana. He plans to pursue a career in computer science.

The three students with Lakewood ties had heavy competition for National Merit Scholarships. Some 1.6 million high school juniors nationwide entered the competition when they took part in the 2015 PSAT test.

A selection committee whittled down the entrants until 16,000 semi-finalists had been announced. Semi-finalists were then asked to submit a detailed scholarship application, which included an essay and information on their extracurricular activities, awards, and leadership positions. The students also had to be endorsed by a high school official and earn SAT high SAT scores. About 15,000 students met the finalist requirements.

Photo from Rick Uldricks, Patch