Six Bellevue Students Win National Merit Corporate Scholarships

Five Bellevue students are among approximately 1,000 high-school seniors who have won corporate-sponsored National Merit Scholarship awards, the organization announced Wednesday.

More than 200 businesses helped finance this year's scholarships, most of which range from $500 to $10,000 per year and are renewable for up to four years. Many businesses bestow the scholarships to students who are children of employees or have demonstrated an interest in pursuing a field related to the company's mission.

The following Bellevue residents have been named winners:

• Maximilian H. Chen, Lakeside School (Seattle), National Merit Novartis Scholarship, Probable career field: Public Health
• Graham M. Jordan, Interlake High School, National Merit Boeing Scholarship, Probable career field: Finance
• Margit K. Lund, International School, National Merit Boeing Scholarship, Probable career field: Diplomatic Service
• Kayla Miller, Interlake High School, National Merit Boeing Scholarship, Probable career field: Biochemistry
• Shannon Ren, Newport High School, National Merit Boeing Scholarship, Probable career field: Computer Science
• Haoming Wang, Interlake High School, National Merit Boeing Scholarship, Probable career field: Law

The National Merit Scholarship Corporation provided the following information about how the above students qualified for the awards:

About 1.5 million juniors in some 22,000 high schools entered the 2013 National Merit Scholarship competition when they took the 2011 Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test (PSAT/NMSQT®), which served as an initial screen of program entrants. In September 2012, some 16,000 Semifinalists were designated on a state representational basis in numbers proportional to each state’s percentage of the national total of graduating high school seniors. Semifinalists were the highest-scoring program entrants in each state and represented less than one percent of the nation’s seniors.

To be considered for a National Merit Scholarship, Semifinalists had to fulfill requirements to advance to Finalist standing. Each Semifinalist was asked to complete 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, be endorsed and recommended by a high school official, and earn SAT scores that confirmed their qualifying test performance. From the Semifinalist group, some 15,000 met Finalist requirements.

By the conclusion of the 2013 competition, about 8,000 Finalists will have been selected to receive National Merit Scholarships totaling over $35 million. Winners are the Finalist candidates judged to have the strongest combination of academic skills and achievements, extracurricular accomplishments, and potential for success in rigorous college studies.