Additional National Merit Scholarship Winner Announced In Danville

News release from the National Merit Scholarship Corporation:

DANVILLE, CA — The student named below has won a corporate-sponsored Merit Scholarship® award financed by the business organization indicated. Nearly all corporate-sponsored Merit Scholar® designees of 2022 were announced publicly by National Merit Scholarship Corporation (NMSC®) in April; however, the award this student was chosen to receive became available after that announcement.

Winner: Lauren Chang, Danville CA 94506

High School Attended: Monte Vista H.S., Danville, CA 94526-1129

Probable Career Field: Healthcare

Scholarship name: National Merit S&P Global Scholarship

S&P Global provides these scholarships for children of its employees.

By the conclusion of the 2022 National Merit® Scholarship Program, about 7,500 National Merit Scholarships, worth a total of approximately $28 million, will have been offered to distinguished high school seniors for college undergraduate study. Approximately 1,000 of the awards, such as the one this student has won, are financed by about 136 companies, foundations, and other business organizations for National Merit Scholarship Program Finalists who meet their scholarship sponsors’ criteria. Corporate sponsors generally provide National Merit Scholarships for Finalists who are children of their employees, residents of communities the company serves, or have plans to pursue majors or careers the grantor wishes to encourage. Winners are the candidates judged to have the strongest combination of academic skills and achievements, extracurricular accomplishments, and potential for success in rigorous college studies.

Funding for corporate-sponsored Merit Scholarship awards is provided by sponsors that
recognize the value of supporting the intellectual development of some of our nation’s most capable students. Sponsors from the business community, representing nearly all sectors of American industry, have underwritten a portion of the National Merit Scholarships offered in all 67 competitions, expending or committing approximately $847 million for scholarships awarded through the National Merit Program.

High school juniors entered the 2022 Merit Scholarship competition when they took the 2020
Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test (PSAT/NMSQT®), which served as an initial screen of program entrants. Last fall, more than 16,000 Semifinalists were named on a state-representational basis, in numbers proportional to each state’s percentage of the nation’s high school graduating seniors. Semifinalists were the highest-scoring program entrants in each state and represented less than one percent of the state’s seniors.

To continue in the competition for National Merit Scholarships, Semifinalists had to submit a
substantial amount of information and fulfill requirements to attain Finalist standing. Each Finalist presented an outstanding academic record; was endorsed and recommended by the school principal; earned SAT® or ACT® scores that confirmed the qualifying test performance; wrote an essay; and provided information about activities, awards, and leadership positions. From the Semifinalist group, over 15,000 advanced to the Finalist level, and by the conclusion of the 2022 competition, about half of the Finalist group will be Merit Scholarship winners.

In addition to corporate-sponsored awards, two other types of National Merit Scholarships
were offered in 2022. They included 2,500 National Merit® $2500 Scholarships, for which all
Finalists competed, and about 4,000 college-sponsored Merit Scholarship awards for Finalists who will attend one of the 155 colleges and universities financing them.

Established in 1955 to conduct the annual National Merit Scholarship Program, NMSC is a
not-for-profit corporation that operates without government assistance. The majority of National Merit Scholarships offered each year are underwritten by some 400 independent corporate and college sponsors that support NMSC’s efforts to honor the nation’s scholastic champions and encourage academic excellence at all levels of education.

This news release was produced by the National Merit Scholarship Corporation. The views expressed here are the author's own.