Menlo Park Student Wins Corporate-Sponsored National Merit Scholarship

SAN MATEO, CA — Three San Mateo County students received corporate-sponsored National Merit Scholarship awards financed by about 94 corporations, foundations, and business organizations. Finalists are either children of employees, residents of the communities served by the companies, or plan to pursue college majors or careers the companies wish to encourage.

The students were among 830 high school seniors nationally who received scholarships funded by 124 companies. In September, more than 16,000 semifinalists were selected on the basis of their PSAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test scores. To advance to the finalist round, semifinalists needed to have an outstanding academic record, be endorsed or recommended by a high school official, and earn SAT or ACT scores that confirm their qualifying test performance.
The awards range from $1,000 to $10,000 per year, and most are renewable for up to four years at an accredited college or university.

Below are the finalists’ names, schools, scholarship names, and probable career fields:

• Aaron Z. Peng, Burlingame High School, National Merit Astrazeneca Pharmaceuticals Scholarship, statistics.
• Benjamin R. Weiss, Menlo-Atherton High School, National Merit Fluor Scholarship, public policy.
• Daniel M. Chen, The Harker School, National Merit Nvidia Corporation Scholarship, materials engineering.

Winners of the National Merit $2500 Scholarships will be announced May 7, and the winners of college-sponsored Merit Scholarships will be announcedJune 4 and July 14. By the end of the 2025, more than 6,930 students nationwide will have earned National Merit Scholarships totaling approximately $26 million, according to the National Merit Scholarship Corporation.