Posted on Apr 27, 2018 in
NEWSWORTHY
Fort Bend ISD is proud to announce that seven District seniors are among the first group of winners in the 63rd annual National Merit Scholarship Program. The National Merit Scholarship Corporation released the names of approximately 1,000 distinguished high school seniors, who have won corporate-sponsored National Merit Scholarship awards financed by 200 corporations, company foundations and other business organizations.
FBISD’s 2018 National Merit Scholarship winners named in the first round include:
Nikitha Bhavani
Dulles High School
NM-S&P Global Scholarship
Isha Dhawan
Clements High School, NM-Jerry R. Junkins Memorial Scholarship
Palak Diwanji
Dulles High School, NM-The PWC Charitable Foundation Scholarship
Stephanie Guo
Clements High School, NM-National Oilwell Varco Scholarship
Star Ni
Dulles High School
NM-Dr. Joseph J. Jacobs Scholarship
Abigail Sackett
Dulles High School
NM-Fluor Scholarship
Sally Mingshuang Yan
Clements High School
NM-Fluor Scholarship
These scholars were selected from students who advanced to the Finalist level in the National Merit Scholarship competition and met criteria of their scholarship sponsors. Corporate sponsors provide National Merit Scholarships for Finalists who are children of their employees, who are residents of communities the company serves, or who plan to pursue college majors or careers the sponsor wishes to encourage.
Most of these awards are renewable for up to four years of college undergraduate study and provide annual stipends that range from $500 to $10,000 per year. Some provide a single payment between $2,500 and $5,000. Recipients can use their awards at any regionally accredited U.S. college or university of their choice.
2018 National Merit Scholarship Competition
More than 1.6 million juniors in more than 22,000 high schools entered the 2018 National Merit Scholarship Program when they took the 2016 Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test (PSAT/NMSQT®), which served as an initial screen of program entrants. In September 2017, some 16,000 Semifinalists were designated on a state-representational basis in numbers proportional to each state’s percentage of the national total of graduating high school seniors. Semifinalists were the highest-scoring program entrants in each state and represented less than one percent of the nation’s seniors.
To be considered for a National Merit Scholarship, Semifinalists had to fulfill requirements to advance to Finalist standing. Each Semifinalist was asked to complete a detailed scholarship application, which included writing an essay and providing information about extracurricular activities, awards and leadership positions. Semifinalists also had to have an outstanding academic record, be endorsed and recommended by a high school official and earn SAT® scores that confirmed their qualifying test performance. From the Semifinalist group, some 15,000 met Finalist requirements.
The National Merit Scholarship Corporation will name recipients of National Merit $2,500 Scholarships on May 9th, and winners of college-sponsored Merit Scholarship awards on June 6th and July 16th. By the conclusion of this year’s competition, about 7,500 academic champions will have won National Merit Scholarships worth more than $31 million.
