Vernon Hills Students Named National Merit Scholars

VERNON HILLS, IL — The National Merit Scholarship Corporation made its first of four announcement of this year's scholarship winners last week. Five students from Vernon Hills were among more than 1,000 high school seniors awarded corporate-sponsored awards financed by about 160 corporations, foundations and business organizations, according to the Evanston-based nonprofit.

The winners were selected from a group of finalists meeting the criteria of the scholarship sponsors. Corporations provide National Merit scholarships for finalists who are children of employees, residents of communities where the company does business or students who intend to pursue areas of academic study and careers that the sponsoring company wants to encourage, according to a release.

The corporate-sponsored scholarships range from annual stipends ranging from $500 to $10,000 to single payment awards of between $2,500 to $5,000. Over the 64 years of the National Merit competitions, corporate sponsors have spent or pledged more than $800 million to the program, it said.

The recipients of NMSC $2,500 scholarships will be announced May 8, and college-sponsored scholarship awards will be announced on June 5 and July 15. National Merit said it will award more than $31 million to about 7,600 high school seniors this year.

The following local students received corporate sponsored scholarships from the National Merit Scholarship Corporation:

Claire Wu Huang, of Stevenson High School, expects to pursue a career in finance. She was awarded the National Merit Ametek Scholarship. The Berwyn, Pennsylvania-based manufacturer of electronic instruments and electromechanical devices has sponsored scholarships for children of employees for more than 50 years.

Varun Malladi, of Stevenson High School, has a probable career field in applied mathematics. He was awarded the National Merit Abbvie Inc. Scholarship. The North Chicago-based pharmaceutical company's scholarships recognize children of employees.

Valerie D. Smykalov, of Vernon Hills High School, plans to pursue a career in environmental policy. She was awarded the National Merit CDK Global, LLC Scholarship. The Hoffman Estates-based software firm sponsors scholarships for the children of its employees.

Tony X. Tan, of Stevenson High School, has a probable career field in computer science. He was awarded the National Merit Abbvie Scholarship, which is open to children of the company's employees.

Jeffrey Zhang, of Vernon Hills High School, has a probable career field of computer science. He was awarded the National Merit Abbvie Inc. Scholarship, which is open to children of the company's employees.