National Merit Scholars From Gwinnett, Loganville Announced

GWINNETT COUNTY, GA — The next group of 2021 National Merit Scholarship winners include 11 high school students from Gwinnett County, as well as schools in Loganville and Suwanee outside the county.

The National Merit winners from Gwinnett County, Loganville and Suwanee 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 2021 winners from Gwinnett County, as well as schools in Loganville and Suwanee outside the county, include:

Gwinnett School of Mathematics, Science and Technology

• Jordan S. Hammond, University of Georgia, astrophysics
• Joshua G. Mellott, University of Alabama, political science

Lambert High School (Suwanee address, Forsyth County)

• Kayla M. Howard, Mississippi State University, veterinary medicine
• Apoorva P. Palled, University of Central Florida, medicine
• Justin Ryu, University of Alabama at Birmingham, medicine
• Kevin H. Sun, Emory University, economics

Loganville High School (Walton County)

• Anderson H. Holcomb, Emory University, surgical medicine

Mountain View High School

• Katie S. Shin, Emory University, medicine

Norcross High School

• Abigail S. Lewis, University of Oregon, film production

Parkview High School

• Sydney R. Walker, Emory University, biomedical engineering

Peachtree Ridge High School

• Brian J. Lee, University of Georgia, undecided

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 Scholarships Go To 14 Gwinnett Grads
• Seven Gwinnett Students Win National Merit Corporate Scholarships

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.