West Hartford Student Among Additional National Merit Scholars

WEST HARTFORD, CT — A local student was announced as one of 900 additional winners of National Merit Scholarships. The college-sponsored awards provide between $500 and $2,000 annually for up to four years of undergraduate study.

Conard High School's Michael G. Piekarsky was announced as one of those winners. He plans to enter the field of biological engineering after attending Brandeis University.

National Merit Scholarship winners are the students in each state judged to have the strongest combination of accomplishments, skills, and potential for success in rigorous college studies, according to an overview of the program. The number of winners named in each state is proportional to the state’s percentage of the nation’s graduating high school seniors.

Some 4,000 college-sponsored Merit Scholarship winners were announced. By the conclusion of this year’s competition, about 7,500 academic champions will have won National Merit Scholarships worth more than $32 million.