Glencoe Student Wins National Merit Cash Scholarship

GLENCOE, IL — A committee of college admissions officers and high school counselors selected a Glencoe resident for a National Merit cash scholarship.

Graham Robbins, a high school senior at the University of Chicago Laboratory Schools, is one of 2,500 winners of $2,500 scholarships from the National Merit Scholarship Corporation.

Robbins, who plans to study political science in college, is one of two winners of the cash scholarships among the class of 2023 at the private school in Chicago's Hyde Park neighborhood, according to National Merit.

Last year, Robbins and 10 other graduating seniors from the Lab Schools, which has about 2,100 students from kindergarten to grade 12, were named National Merit semifinalists.

Two Wilmette residents set to graduate New Trier High School, a 3,000-student school from which 19 students were named semifinalists last year, were also this week named cash scholarship winners.

The scholarships are awarded to National Merit finalists found to have the "strongest combination of accomplishments, skills, and potential for success in rigorous college studies," according to a release.

The cash scholarships are the second of four rounds of annual scholarship winner announcements by the Evanston-based nonprofit.

Last month, National Merit representatives announced about 840 winners of corporate sponsored-scholarships.

The nonprofit plans to release next month the names of college-sponsored National Merit scholarship winners, which comprise the majority of the approximately 7,140 graduating high school students in line for nearly $28 million scholarships this year.