2 Students At Lake Forest Schools Awarded National Merit Scholarships

LAKE FOREST, IL — Two high school seniors attending Lake Forest schools have been named winners of National Merit scholarships.

The pair of local students was among the approximately 840 students to be awarded corporate-sponsored scholarships from the National Merit Scholarship Corporation, the first group of winners announced annually by the Evanston-based nonprofit.

Laurel S. Curry, a Lake Forest High School student, and Michael Xing, a student at Lake Forest Academy, were both awarded National Merit W.W. Grainger scholarships.

Curry, of Lake Forest, plans to pursue a career in biomedicine.

Xing, of Chicago, plans to pursue an engineering career.

Grainger is a Lake Forest-based distributor of maintenance, repair and operating supplies. It has about 25,000 employees and a market capitalization of nearly $34 billion.

According to National Merit, about 107 corporations finance the scholarships and set the eligibility criteria, providing cash scholarships to those who are children of their employees, residents of communities the company serves, or those who plan to pursue academic study or careers the companies want to encourage.

The corporate awards provide annual stipends ranging from $1,000 to $10,000 for four years of college undergraduate study, although some offer a single payment of $2,500 to $5,000.

Last fall, more than 16,000 students were named finalists based on their scores on the Preliminary SAT. Those that completed a detailed application were eligible to become finalists, and about 15,000 of them did.

Of that group, Nation Merit will select more than 7,140 finalists to be awarded almost $28 million worth of scholarships this year, the 68th edition of the program, according to the nonprofit.

National Merit is set to announce the winners of $2,500 cash scholarships next month. The nonprofit then reveals the winners of college-sponsored scholarships in June and July.

Earlier: 11 Students At Lake Forest Schools Named National Merit Semifinalists