Anne Arundel County Student Wins National Merit Scholarship, Will Study Data Science

EDGEWATER, MD — An Edgewater student was among the 1,200 additional winners of college-sponsored National Merit Scholarships in 2022. They will join the more than 2,600 students who were chosen in June to college-sponsored scholarships from the group of 2022 National Merit Scholarship finalists.

Sponsoring colleges include 82 private institutions and 73 public institutions in 42 states and the District of Columbia. Awards are given to students who plan to attend the college and provide between $500 and $2,000 annually for up to four years of undergraduate study.

John D. Hooker of Edgewater earned a National Merit Scholarship for one of the three University of Maryland campuses. Hooker, a student from South River High School, plans to study data science.

About 7,500 high school seniors will receive National Merit Scholarships totaling about $28 million in 2022. Winners in the first round of college-sponsored scholarships were announced on June 1. Winners of corporate-sponsored scholarships were announced on April 27, and winners of the National Merit Scholarship Corporation's $2,500 awards were named on May 11. This round of college-sponsored award winners was released on Monday. There will be about 4,000 college-sponsored awards in total.

High school seniors were entered into the National Merit Scholarship competition when they took the 2020 PSAT as juniors. Over 16,000 semifinalists were named in the fall based on each state's proportion of graduating seniors in the country. Semifinalists were the highest-scoring students, representing less than 1 percent of high school seniors.

To advance to the finalist stage, semifinalists had to submit a scholarship application with an essay, information about extracurricular activities, awards and leadership positions. Semifinalists also had to show an outstanding academic record, receive a recommendation from a high school official, and earn SAT or ACT scores that confirmed their PSAT performance.

Over 15,000 qualified for the finalist standing. Half of these finalists will receive National Merit Scholarships in 2022.

Editor's Note: Field Editor Michael O'Connell originally wrote this story for the Fairfax City, Virginia Patch. Jacob Baumgart, another field editor, adapted it and republished it with Anne Arundel County's information.