Five WCPSS Students Named 2010 National Merit Corporate Scholars
April 29, 2010 - Five Wake County Public School System students have been named as 2010 National Merit Corporate Scholarship winners.The five WCPSS students are Kai Kang, Andrew Lee, Staci Cooper and Ekaterina Roze of Enloe Magnet High and Derek Eidum of Millbrook Magnet High.
Kang and Lee earned National Merit Corporate Scholarships from CSC, one of the world’s largest computer services companies. Both Kang and Lee have indicated pharmacy as a probable career field.
Cooper earned a National Merit Corporate Scholarship from Siemens Corporation, which produces and markets electrical and electronic systems, instruments and components for medicine, science and industry. Cooper is interested in biomedical engineering.
Roze earned a National Merit Corporate Scholarship from Synopsis, Inc., a leading design technology partner and industry for complex chip design. Roze has indicated a career interest in economics.
Eidum earned a National Merit Corporate Scholarship from Ethicon, Inc., a Johnson and Johnson company that develops products for surgery, wound management and advanced wound care treatment. Eidum has indicated a career interest in engineering.
These scholars were selected from finalists in the 2010 National Merit Scholarship Program who meet the criteria of their scholarship sponsors. Corporate organizations provide National Merit Scholarships for finalists who are children of their employees, residents of communities the company serves, or have plans to pursue majors or careers the grantor wishes to encourage.
Most of the corporate-sponsored scholarships are renewable for up to four years of college undergraduate study and provide annual stipends. Some provide a single payment between $2,500 and $5,000.
More than 1.5 million juniors in over 22,000 high schools entered the 2010 National Merit Scholarship competition when they took the 2008 Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test which served as an initial screen of program entrants.
Last fall, 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 National Merit Scholarship awards, semifinalists had to fulfill requirements to advance to finalists 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.
By the conclusion of the 2010 competition, about 8,400 finalists will be selected to receive National Merit Scholarships totaling more than $36 million.
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