Plainfield East Grad Wins National Merit Award

Editor's note: District 202 erroneously sent a photo of the wrong student, also named Jacob Floresca. The photo has now been corrected.

PLAINFIELD, IL — Plainfield East High School graduate Jacob Floresca is one of more than 3,500 students nationwide to win a National Merit college-sponsored award as part of the 2019 National Merit Scholarship program.

The prestigious National Merit Scholarship program honors academically talented high school seniors and lets them compete for National Merit Scholarship awards in several categories.

This year, 173 colleges and universities are underwriting Merit Scholarship awards. These college-sponsored awards range from $500 to $2,000 annually for up to four years of undergraduate study at the institution financing the scholarship. Floresca’s scholarship came from the University of Alabama. Floresca intends to study business.

Floresca graduated from PEHS in May 2019. He earned National Merit Finalist status by building an outstanding academic record throughout high school and qualifying SAT scores, among other criteria. This scholarship cam

More than 1.6 million high school juniors in over 22,000 high schools nationwide entered the 2019 National Merit Program by taking the 2017 Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test.

The pool of semifinalists comprises less than one percent of all United States high school seniors and includes the highest scoring entrants in each state.

In all, about 7,600 students nationwide won National Merit awards and scholarships in various categories worth about $31 million.

Submitted by District 202