Fairfax Seniors Earn College-Sponsored Merit Scholarships

FAIRFAX, VA—Five students from the area have earned college-sponsored National Merit Scholarships among thousands of others across the country. The National Merit Scholarship Corporation announced the 3,500 college-sponsored scholarship recipients Wednesday, June 5. Among the winners:

• Daniel P. Braun of Fairfax (W.T. Woodson High School) plans to study psychology at the University of Alabama.
• Jonathan X. Guo of Fairfax (Oakton High School) plans to study at the University of Chicago.
• Joseph Tirre of Fairfax (James W. Robinson Secondary School) plans to study engineering at Virginia Commonwealth University.
• Justin S. Wang of Fairfax (Chantilly High School) plans to study electrical engineering at the University of Maryland.
• Nandhana Nair of Fairfax Station (Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology) plans to study international business at Fordham University.

The scholarships give students $500 to $2,000 each year for the undergraduate institution they plan to attend. This year, 173 higher education institutions in 43 states and the District of Columbia sponsored the awards.

The National Merit Scholarship program includes awards sponsored by colleges, businesses and the National Merit Scholarship Corporation itself. Corporate-sponsored and $2,500 National Merit-sponsored scholarship winners were announced earlier in the spring.

More than 1.6 million high school students were entered for the 2019 scholarships by taking the Preliminary SAT (PSAT) as juniors. That list was narrowed to 16,000 semifinalists in the fall. Semifinalists were the highest-scoring students in each state.

To advance to the finalist stage, semifinalists submitted a scholarship application with an essay and information about their extracurricular activities, awards and leadership positions. They must also have an outstanding record, SAT scores that reinforce their qualifying PSAT scores and a recommendation from a high school official. Around 15,000 met requirements to become finalists.

A total of 7,600 high school seniors will receive over $31 million in National Merit Scholarships in 2019. The next round of college-sponsored scholarship recipients will be announced on July 15.