Plymouth-Whitemarsh HSer Wins National Merit Scholarship

PLYMOUTH MEETING, PA — A Plymouth-Whitemarsh High School student is among a select group of students nationwide to earn a prestigious scholarship.

The awards range from $500 to $10,000 per year for up to four years of undergraduate study.

Derek H. Nam, who has a probable carrer field of economics, earned a scholarship from PepsiCo Foundation.

Corporate sponsors provide scholarships to finalists who are children of their employees, residents of communities the company serves, or who plan to pursue college majors or careers the company wishes to encourage.

Around 1,000 students were selected as corporate-sponsored National Merit winners nationwide, including 44 in Pennsylvania.

Winners were chosen from a pool of around 1.6 million high school juniors who automatically entered into the competition by taking the PSAT in 2017. Around 16,000 semifinalists were chosen from that group in 2018 based on high scores. Semifinalists then had to complete a detailed scholarship application, including an essay, information on leadership and extracurricular activities, and more.

Around 7,600 students will be selected as finalists of some kind in 2019, organizers said, either for a corporate or non-corporate scholarship.