Four North Allegheny Students Win National Merit Scholarships

McCANDLESS, PA - Four North Allegheny students were among 15 Pittsburgh-area students to be named winners of the 2019 National Merit $2,500 Scholarship. The merit scholar winners, announced Wednesday, were among 2,500 winners nationwide and were selected from a pool of more than 15,000 finalists.

Wednesday’s announcement is the second group of winners to be announced this year. In April, more than 1,000 recipients of the corporate-sponsored Merit Scholarship were named.

A panel of college admissions officers and high school counselors judged the students based on their accomplishments, skills and potential for success in rigorous college courses, the National Merit Scholarship Corporation said in a release. The judges looked at grades, difficulty of courses, standardized test scores, contributions and leadership both in school and in the community, an essay and a recommendation from a high school official.

The number of winners in each state was proportional to the state’s share of the nation’s graduating high school seniors. Additional winners will be named in June and July. By the end of the year, about 7,600 students will have won merit scholarships totaling more than $31 million. The money can be put toward any regionally accredited college or university in America.

Here are the winners from North Allegheny:

• Harshal Dahake, probable career field: computer science.

• Christopher Lee, probable career field: science/research

• Tomer Shamir, probable career field: computer science.

• Shudipto Wahed, probable career field: engineering.

Here are the other 11 winners from the Pittsburgh metro area:

• Rachel Himmel, Fox Chapel, probable career field: mathematics.

• Bhar Jain, Franklin Regional, probable career field: neurosurgery.

• Joseph Cafaro, Hampton, probable career field: banking.

• Allison Mitchell, Hampton, probable career field: neurosurgery.

• Rebecca Schwartz, Mt. Lebanon, probable career field: materials engineering.

• Rishin Sharma, Seneca Valley, probable career field: finance.

• Aydin Turkay, Sewickley Academy, probable career field: biomedical engineering.

• Nicholas Lauer, Shady Side Academy, probable career field: engineering.

• Walter Navid, Shady Side Academy, probable career field: medicine.

• Caroline Yu, Taylor Allderdice, probable career field: bioinformatics.

• Nadine Oury, Winchester Thurston, probable career field: environmentla sciences.

The merit scholarship program was created in 1955. Students in grades nine through 12 vie for academic recognition and financial support. About 1.6 million students take the qualifying test every year and about 50,000 of the highest scorers have the chance to be considered.