7 Students From Prince William County Receive $2,500 National Merit Scholarships

PRINCE WILLIAM COUNTY, VA — Seven students from around Prince William County and Manassas Park received $2,500 National Merit Scholarships.

About 2,500 students from across the country were chosen to receive National Merit Scholarships worth $2,500. The awards were announced on Wednesday.

Sixty-four students from Virginia, including seven from the Prince William County area, received $2,500 National Merit Scholarships:

• Saahas Gowda, a student at Battlefield High School in Haymarket, plans to use the scholarship to study business management in college.
• Raj Joshi, a student at Battlefield High School in Haymarket, plans to use the scholarship to study biomedicine in college.
• Jasjeet Sandhu, a student from Haymarket who attends the Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology, plans to use the scholarship to study politics in college.
• Melanie Rosado, a student at Colgan High School in Manassas, plans to use the scholarship to study international relations in college.
• Brayden Wence, a student at Manassas Park High School, plans to use the scholarship to study aerospace engineering in college.
• Iqra Ahmed, a student from Woodbridge who attends Osbourn Park High School in Manassas, plans to use the scholarship to study medicine in college.
• Ritika Bawa, a student from Gainesville who attends Patriot High School in Nokesville, plans to use the scholarship to study medicine.

The $2,500 scholarships are the second round of National Merit Scholarships to be announced for 2022. The winners of the corporate-sponsored scholarships were announced on April 27. Two other rounds of awards are being given in June and July. This will bring the total of college-sponsored awards to about 4,000.

To be entered for the National Merit Scholarship competition, over 1.5 million students were entered as juniors taking the PSAT in 2020. In fall 2021, around 16,000 semifinalists were named based on each state's proportion of graduating seniors. Semifinalists were the top scoring entrants in their states and represent less than 1 percent of seniors in the U.S.

To be considered for finalist status, semifinalists had to submit a detailed scholarship application with an essay and details on extracurricular activities, awards, and leadership positions as well as demonstrate an outstanding academic record and have an endorsement from a high school official.

Around 16,000 finalists met requirements for finalists status and were eligible to be chosen for corporate-sponsored, National Merit Scholarship-sponsored and college-sponsored awards. In all, about 7,500 students will win National Merit Scholarships worth nearly $28 million in 2022.