Alameda High Student Wins National Merit $2,500 Scholarship

From the National Merit Scholarship Corporation

National Merit Scholarship Corporation (NMSC) announced this year’s National Merit $2,500 Scholarship winners, which include one student from Alameda High School.

Brian Blake Jones Wong was chosen from a talent pool of more than 15,000 outstanding Finalists in the 2013 National Merit Scholarship Program. He is looking into a career field of mathematics.

His National Merit $2,500 scholarship is underwritten by The UPS Foundation. This award is part of the UPS Foundation's program of aid to education, through which it has also made direct grants and endowments to a wide variety of educational institutions throughout the U.S.

National Merit $2,500 Scholarship winners are the Finalists in each state judged to have the strongest combination of accomplishments, skills, and potential for success in rigorous college studies. The number of winners named in each state is proportional to the state’s percentage of the nation’s graduating high school seniors.

 These Scholars were selected by a committee of college admissions offi cers and high school counselors, who appraised a substantial amount of information submitted by both the Finalists and their high schools: the academic record, including diffi culty level of subjects studied and grades earned; scores from two standardized tests; contributions and leadership in school and community activities; an essay written by the Finalist; and a recommendation written by a high school official.

NMSC finances most of these single-payment National Merit $2,500 Scholarships. Corporations and company foundations that sponsor awards through NMSC also help underwrite these scholarships with grants they provide in lieu of paying administrative fees. Scholars may use their awards at any regionally accredited U.S. college or university.

2013 National Merit Scholarship Competition

This year’s competition for National Merit Scholarships began in October 2011 when approximately 1.5 million juniors in some 22,000 high schools took the Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test (PSAT/NMSQT®
entrants. Last fall, the highest-scoring participants in each state, representing less than one percent of the nation’s high school seniors, were named Semifinalists on a state representational basis. Only these 16,000 Semifinalists had an opportunity to continue in the competition.

From the Semifinalist group, 15,000 students met the very high academic standards and other requirements to advance to the Finalist level of the competition. By the conclusion of the 2013 program, about 8,000 Finalists will have earned the “Merit Scholar” title and received a total of over $35 million in college scholarships.

NMSC, a not-for-profi t corporation that operates without government assistance, was founded in 1955 specifically to conduct the annual National Merit Scholarship Program. The majority of scholarships offered each year are underwritten by approximately 440 independent corporate and college sponsors that share NMSC’s goals of honoring scholastically talented youth and encouraging academic excellence at all levels of education.

For more information on the National Merit Scholarship Corporation, visit www.nationalmerit.org.