Four WCPSS Seniors Named 2010 National Merit Achievement Scholars
April 7, 2010 - Four Wake County Public School System students were named 2010 National Achievement Scholarship winners today by the National Merit Scholarship Corporation.The WCPSS scholarship winners are Olivia Hart of Green Hope High, Matthew Jones of Enloe Magnet High, Shayna McCormack of Broughton High and Kaosisochukwu Uzokwe of Millbrook Magnet High.
The four WCPSS students are among 800 outstanding Black American high school seniors who have won Achievement Scholarship® awards for college undergraduate study. Their awards are being financed by the National Merit Scholarship Corporation.
Hart was among the 100 winners of corporate-sponsored National Achievement® Scholarships and has earned a National Achievement George Watts Hill Scholarship through the Research Triangle Institute. Jones, McCormack and Uzokwe were among the 700 winners of National Achievement® $2500 Scholarships, single-payment scholarships awarded on a regional representation basis in numbers proportional to the population of Black Americans in each geographic region.
The National Achievement Scholarship Program is a privately financed academic competition established in 1964 specifically to honor scholastically talented Black American youth, and to provide scholarships to a substantial number of the most outstanding participants in each annual competition.
More than 160,000 students entered the 2010 National Achievement Scholarship Competition by requesting consideration when they took the 2008 Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test (PSAT/NMSQT®) as high school juniors. In September 2009, approximately 1,600 of the highest scorers were named Semifinalists on a regional representation basis. To continue in the competition, Semifinalists had to fulfill requirements for Finalist standing, which included having a record of consistently high academic performance; being endorsed and recommended by an official of their high school; earning SAT scores that confirm their PSAT/NMSQT performance; and submitting an essay about personal interests, attainments, and goals.
Some 1,300 Semifinalists advanced to the Finalist level, and all National Achievement Scholarship winners were selected from this group of outstanding students. Achievement Scholar awardees are the Finalist candidates judged to have the strongest record of accomplishments and greatest potential for academic success in college.
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