2 Mid-Hudson Students Awarded 2021 National Merit Scholarships

MID-HUDSON VALLEY, NY — The third group of 2021 National Merit scholarship winners includes 14 from the Hudson Valley, and two are students from the mid-Hudson Valley.

These winners of National Merit college-sponsored scholarships 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.

The winners from the mid-Hudson Valley are:

• Matthias S. Lai from New Paltz Central High School won a National Merit Scholarship from Fordham University. He picked journalism as a probable career field
• Calvin S. Walker of Rhinebeck attends Choate Rosemary Hall. He won a National Merit Scholarship from the University of Chicago. His probable career field is entrepreneurship.

An additional group of college-sponsored National Merit scholars will be announced in July, the scholarship corporation said. This group is part of about 7,500 National Merit scholarship winners who will be selected by the end of 2021.

• 14 Hudson Valley National Merit Scholarship Winners Announced
  
• 36 Hudson Valley Seniors Win 2021 National Merit Scholarships
• 6 HV Students Win 2021 Corporate-Sponsored Merit 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.