Shoreham-Wading High Student Wins National Merit Scholarship

SHOREHAM-WADING RIVER, NY — Daniel B. Julian, a Shoreham-Wading River High School student, was one of only a few students on Long Island to win a National Merit Scholarship honoring the best and the brightest across the nation.

Daniel, who lives in Shoreham and plans to study chemistry, was awarded a National Merit Stony Brook University Scholarship.

Daniel was one of more than 3,100 winners of the National Merit Scholarships financed by colleges and universities nationwide. Winners receive between $500 and $2,000 annually for up to four years of undergraduate study.

More than 1.5 million juniors in about 21,000 high schools entered the 2021 National Merit Scholarship Program when they took the 2019 Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship qualifying test, an initial screening of program entrants. Last fall, about 17,000 semifinalists were named; semifinalists were the highest-scoring program entrants in each state and represented less than one percent of the nation's seniors.

To compete for merit scholarship awards, semifinalists first had to advance to the finalist level of the competition by submitting a detailed scholarship application, which included writing an essay and providing information about extracurricular activities, awards, and leadership positions. Semifinalists also had to have an outstanding academic record, and be endorsed and recommended by a high school official, a release said. From the semifinalist group, about 16,000 met the requirements for finalist standing, and about half of the finalists will be Merit Scholarship winners in 2021.

"Stony Brook University, a leading national public research university, offers undergraduate and graduate programs in the Colleges of Arts and Sciences and Engineering and Applied Sciences; and Schools of Health Technology and Management, Nursing, Business, and Social Welfare. Stony Brook attracts an international faculty and student body. Research, internship, volunteer, and extracurricular opportunities abound on campus, at University Hospital, and in surrounding communities for high achieving students," a release said.