10 Forsyth County Students Named National Merit Scholars

CUMMING, GA — The next group of 2021 National Merit Scholarship winners includes 10 Forsyth County students.

The National Merit winners from Cumming 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.

The winners from Forsyth County include:

Alliance Academy of Innovation

• Sanjanna Shankar
  • National Merit University of Georgia Scholarship
  • Probable career field: medicine

Forsyth Central High School

• Ashriitha Shanmugam
  • National Merit UAB Scholarship
  • Probable career field: oncology

Lambert High School

• Kayla M. Howard
  • National Merit Mississippi State University Scholarship
  • Probable career field: veterinary medicine
• Apoorva P. Palled
  • National Merit UAB Scholarship
  • Probable career field: medicine
• Justin Ryu
  • National Merit UAB Scholarship
  • Probable career field: medicine
• Kevin H. Sun
  • National Merit Emory University Scholarship
  • Probable career field: economics

South Forsyth High School

• Wesley Thomas Bryant
  • National Merit University of Alabama Scholarship
  • Probable career field: pediatrics
• Riley A. Durbin
  • National Merit University of Alabama Scholarship
  • Probable career field: computer science
• Riya Manchanda
  • National Merit Boston University Scholarship
  • Probable career field: medicine
• Aadarsh Vavilikolanu
  • National Merit University of Georgia Scholarship
  • Probable career field: computer science

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 5 Forsyth County Grads
• National Merit Corporate Scholarship Awarded In Forsyth County

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.