7 Rochester Students Win 2nd Round Of National Merit Scholarships

ROCHESTER, MI — Seven students from the Rochester area are winners of the second round of the National Merit Scholarship, which awards $2500 to recipients.

The first round of corporate-sponsored scholarships were announced on April 21 and included 14 students from Michigan.

For each state, the number of winners is proportional to the state’s percentage of the nation’s graduating high school seniors. The program says the winners are the finalists “judged to have the strongest combination of accomplishments, skills and potential for success in rigorous college studies.”

More than 1.5 million students applied for the highly competitive scholarship and the program says that around 7,500 students will go on to win scholarships in 2021 that total $30 million. Winners of the college-sponsored scholarship will be announced in June and July.

Here are the Rochester winners of the $2,500 scholarships:

• Andrew R. Zhao - Rochester Adams HS
• Govind Narayanan - Rochester Adams HS
• Devarshi Mukherji - Notre Dame Preparatory School
• Hera Akmal - Rochester HS
• Esha Kumblekere - Stoney Creek HS
• Caroline Y. Xu - Rochester Adams HS
• Grace K. Yang - Rochester Adams HS

A total of 16,000 students were selected as finalists for the scholarships and the final winners are candidates “judged to have the strongest combination of academic skills and achievements, extracurricular accomplishments, and potential for success in rigorous college studies.”