Three Walton High Grads Receive National Merit Scholarships

EAST COBB, GA — Two Walton High School graduates have received National Merit Scholarships to the University of Georgia.

Daniel Catanese and Guy J. Kemelmakher both were announced as recipients Monday morning by the National Merit Scholarship Corp.

A third Walton graduate, Erik Pitts, has received a National Merit Scholarship to Texas A&M University.

School officials selected them from among the finalists in the National Merit Scholarship Program planning to go to attend their universities. These awards provide between $500 and $2,000 annually for up to four years of undergraduate study at the institution financing the scholarship.

Catanese, Kemelmakher and Pitts are among a final group of more than 650 winners, bringing the number of 2020 National Merit Scholars to about 7,600. These high school graduates will receive scholarships for undergraduate study worth a total of more than $30 million.

In addition to college-sponsored awards, two other types of National Merit Scholarships were offered — 2,500 National Merit $2500 Scholarships, for which all finalists competed, and more than 1,000 corporate-sponsored Merit Scholarship awards for finalists who met criteria specified by their grantor organizations.

An earlier version of this story omitted Erik Pitts.