National Merit Scholars From Phoenix Announced

Phoenix AZ

02 June, 2021

12:01 PM

Description

PHOENIX, AZ — The next group of 2021 National Merit Scholarship winners include 90 high school students from Arizona and 13 from Phoenix. The National Merit winners from Phoenix are among the more than 3,100 announced nationally this year to receive between $500 and $2,000 scholarships from colleges and universities across the country, the National Merit Scholarship Corp. said in a news release Wednesday. National Merit Scholarship winners from Phoenix in 2021 include: Aditi A. Kelwalkar, BASIS Peoria, Arizona State University, computer scienceIvan S. Andreopoulos, Pinnacle High School, Purdue University, engineeringRook W. Bowman, Tolleson University High School, ecologyCaleb S. Brakensiek, home schooled, University of Arizona, computer scienceNicola L. Ferguson, Paradise Valley High School, Trinity University, cell biologyJulius E. Gorton, Paradise Valley High School, University of Arizona, actuarial scienceZachary H. Jones, BASIS Phoenix, University of Southern California, academiaMaximilian Lunifeld, Arcadia High School, Texas A&M, mechanical engineeringRisha N. Nayee, BASIS Peoria, University of Arizona, veterinary medicineSophie B. Nguyen, BASIS Phoenix, Arizona State University, chemical engineeringKay Poonawala, BASIS Phoenix, University of Arizona, geology The National Merit winners announced this week will have their scholarships funded by the colleges and universities that they will attend. One hundred and sixty colleges and universities — including 85 private and 75 public schools — took part in the merit scholarship program in 2021. An additional group of college-sponsored National Merit scholars will be announced in July, the scholarship corporation said. This group is part of the approximately 7,500 National Merit scholarship winners who will be selected by the end of 2021. National Merit scholarships via corporate-sponsored awards and the corporation's own $2,500 scholarships were announced earlier in the spring. RELATED: Arizona Students Are National Merit Scholarship Winners More than 1.5 million juniors nationally entered the 2021 National Merit scholarship program when they took the 2019 preliminary SAT/National Merit scholarship qualifying test, the corporation said. About 17,000 semifinalists, fewer than 1 percent of the country's high school seniors, were announced last fall. Semifinalists had to write an essay and detail their extracurricular activities, awards and leadership positions to become a finalist. About half of the 16,000 finalists will be merit scholars by the end of the year, the corporation said.