West Springfield Seniors Score College-Sponsored Scholarships

The National Merit Scholarship Corporation announced about 3,500 college-sponsored National Merit Scholarship winners Wednesday, June 6. Two seniors from West Springfield High School are among the recipients.

Genieva G. Beckstrand plans to study mathematics at the University of Texas at Dallas with the scholarship, and Jonathon Ranieri will study the same subject at the University of Southern California. These winners are among 40 from Virginia receiving college-sponsored scholarships.

The awards range between $500 and $2,000 annually for up to four years of undergraduate
study. 178 higher education institutions located in 44 states and the District of Columbia are sponsoring awards this year. An additional group of scholars will be announced in July, bringing the total number of college-sponsored recipients to about 4,000.

By the conclusion of this year's competition, about 7,500 students will be awarded scholarships worth more than $31 million.

Over 1.6 million students were entered into the competition by taking the Preliminary SATs as juniors, which narrowed down to 15,000 finalists. Semifinalists submitted additional applications with an essay, information about extracurricular activities, leadership positions and awards, and a recommendation from a school official.

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