3 Strongsville Students Get National Merit Scholarships

STRONGSVILLE, OH — Three students from Strongsville are among some 3,200 recipients of the 2017 National Merit Scholarships. The students survived an application process that saw them competing with 1.6 million other high school juniors for a year. Each recipient got a scholarship from the university they plan on attending.

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 up-to-date on all local news by subscribing to the Strongsville Patch newsletters.)

The three high school students from Strongsville all attend private high schools in the area. The three Strongsville students are Aaron Abele (St. Ignatius), Anna Schaeffer (Cuyahoga Valley Christian Academy), and Nathan Schwartz (St. Ignatius).

Abele received his scholarship from the University of Dayton, where he will study computer engineering. Schaeffer will attend the University of Texas at Dallas and plans to pursue a career in human rights. Schwartz is going to Fordham University in New York City and will study law.

In addition to the three students listed, Conor Bush, also of Strongsville, and a senior at St. Ignatius High School received the Isaac Bashevis Singer Scholarship to the University of Miami in Coral Gables, Florida and a National Merit Corporation Scholarship. He turned the scholarships down to attend Lafayette College in Easton, Pennsylvania. He will study civil engineering.

The students 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 semifinalists had been announced. Semifinalists 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.

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