14 Seniors Earn National Merit Scholarships
May 29, 2008 - 14 Wake County Public School System high school seniors earned National Merit College Scholarships, according to the National Merit Scholarship Corporation.
The 14 students are Noah Fontes of Apex High; Matthew Fox and Nancy Pace of Broughton High; Christine Dragonette of Cary High; Adam Buckholtz, James Cuffney, Miles Huang and Scott Possiel of Enloe High; William Schlieper of Green Hope High; Amanda Jackson of Knightdale High; Josh King of Leesville Road High; Terry James and Nicolette Rossmell of Middle Creek High; and Timothy Armstrong of Millbrook High.
Armstrong, Buckholtz, Dragonette, Fontes, Fox, Jackson, King, Pace, Possiel, Rossmell and Schlieper earned National Merit University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Scholarships. Huang earned a National Merit University of Southern California Scholarship. James earned a National Merit University of Alabama Scholarship. Cuffney earned a National Merit Purdue University Scholarship.
Three students identified their probable career field as law and two said medicine.
These students were part of the 2,800 students earning National Merit Scholarships financed by colleges and universities from a talent pool of approximately 15,000 finalists in the 2008 National Merit Scholarship Program.
Officials of each sponsor college selected their scholarship winners from among Finalists in the 2008 National Merit Scholarship Program who plan to attend their institution. These awards provide between $500 and $2,500 annually for up to four years of undergraduate study at the institution financing the scholarship.
This year 194 higher education institutions are underwriting Merit Scholarship awards through the National Merit Program.
2008 National Merit Scholarship Competition
More than 1.4 million juniors in over 21,000 high schools entered the 2008 National Merit Scholarship competition when they took the 2006 Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test, which served as an initial screen of program entrants.
In September 2007, some 16,000 Semifinalists were designated on a state representational basis, in numbers proportional to each state’s percentage of the nation’s high school graduating seniors. Semifinalists were the highest-scoring program entrants in each state and represented less than one percent of a state’s seniors.
To be considered for a National Merit Scholarship, Semifinalists had to fulfill requirements to advance to Finalist standing. In addition to submitting a detailed scholarship application, which included an essay describing activities, interests, and goals, Semifinalists had to have an outstanding academic record; be endorsed and recommended by a school official; and earn SAT scores that confirmed their qualifying test performance. Some 15,000 Semifinalists met Finalist requirements.
Established in 1955 to conduct the annual National Merit Scholarship Program, NMSC is a not-for-profit organization that operates without government assistance.
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