4 Rockville Students Awarded Corporate National Merit Scholarships

ROCKVILLE, MD — Around 1,000 high school seniors nationwide have been awarded company-sponsored merit scholarships, including four in Rockville high schools.

"Scholars were selected from students who advanced to the Finalist level in the National Merit Scholarship competition and met criteria of their scholarship sponsors," a release from the National Merit Scholarship Corporation says. "Corporate sponsors provide National Merit Scholarships for Finalists who are children of their employees, who are residents of communities the company serves, or who plan to pursue college majors or careers the sponsor wishes to encourage."

Here are the students from Rockville who received a scholarship:

• Feileen N. Li, a student at Richard Montgomery High School in Rockville was awarded by Raytheon and plans to study international business.
• Madeline E. Lawrence, a student at Richard Montgomery High School in Rockville, is undecided about what she'd like to study in college. She was awarded by AstraZeneca Pharmaceuticals.
• Vismaya P. Mohindra, a student at Richard Montgomery High School, was awarded by Leidos, a global science and technology solutions and services company. Vismaya plans to study international relations in college.
• Emily S. Wu, a student at Richard Montgomery High School, plans to study business. Boeing awarded her a scholarship.
• Keerthi Padmanabhan, a student at Thomas Sprigg Wootton High School in Rockville, plans to study materials engineering. Keerthi was awarded a scholarship from AstraZeneca Pharmaceuticals.
• Isra Qadri, a student at Thomas Sprigg Wootton High School in Rockville, was awarded a scholarship from AstraZeneca Pharmaceuticals. Isra plans to study public policy.

High school juniors are entered into the National Merit contest by taking the PSAT. In September, 16,000 semifinalists were chosen and were asked to complete an application with included an essay and information about leadership and extracurricular activities, submit proof of their academic record, get an endorsement from a school official and earn a top ACT or SAT score.

The National Merit Corporation said most of the scholarships are renewable each academic year and range from $1,000 to $10,000, though some are one-time payments between $2,500 and $5,000.