National Merit Scholars Named From Chamblee Charter High School

DEKALB COUNTY, GA — The next group of 2021 National Merit Scholarship winners includes two Chamblee Charter High School students.

The National Merit winners from DeKalb County 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 Corporation said in a news release Wednesday.

National Merit Scholarship winners from Chamblee in 2021 include:

• Mary C. Adams, Florida Atlantic University, Medicine
• Rachel Lee, Emory University, Medicine

Florida Atlantic University (FAU) is a dynamic, national public research university. FAU is recognized as a university of choice for excellence in undergraduate education and the student experience, comprehensive graduate education, visionary and globally relevant research, and transformative engagement with its global communities. With one of the nation's most diverse student bodies, FAU offers more than 170 degree programs to more than 30,000 students.

Emory College is the undergraduate division of Emory University, a private, coeducational university located in suburban Atlanta. With over 3,000 students and a 12:1 student-faculty ratio, the college provides the advantages of individual attention plus the resources of a major university. Emory also offers undergraduate schools of Business Administration and Nursing, and graduate schools of Arts and Sciences, Dentistry, Law, Medicine, Allied Health, and Theology.

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.

• $2,500 National Merit Scholarship Goes To 6 DeKalb County Grads

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.

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