Plymouth Student Named National Merit Scholarship Winner

PLYMOUTH, MI — A student from Plymouth High School was one of 14 Michigan students named winners for the 2021 corporate-sponsored National Merit Scholarship Program.

Alex Murad, a Canton resident interested in engineering, won the National Merit CACI Scholarship. They were among approximately 1,000 high-school seniors from across the U.S. According to a press release from the National Merit Scholarship Program, the corporate scholarships are financed by about 140 corporations, company foundations and other business organizations.

The awards are renewable for up to four years of undergraduate study and students get a stipend that’s anywhere between $1,000 - $10,000 each year. Some of the awards include a single payment between $2,500-$5,000.

More than 1.5 million students applied for the highly competitive scholarship and the program says that around 7,500 students will go on to win scholarships in 2021 that total $30 million. Winners of the $2,500 scholarships and the college-sponsored scholarships will be announced later this year.

Here are the Michigan winners for the corporate-sponsored scholarships:

• Sangjun Kang - Saline HS
• Mahith S. Kanuri - International Academy
• Alex J. Murad - Plymouth HS
• Alexander D. Hughes - Utica Academy For International Studies
• Jacquelyn T. Wang - Grosse Pointe South HS
• Allison M. Klimek - Dwight D. Eisenhower HS
• Amulya Kammila Raju - Northville HS
• Matthew Pang - Northville HS
• Omkar Vodela - Novi HS
• Riddhi Bhattacharya - Okemos HS
• Ava Sarah Hajratwala - Saline HS
• Ethan Gertsch - Utica Academy for International Studies
• Amol V. Kirtane - Troy HS
• Jack A. Ignatowski - Detroit Country Day School

A total of 16,000 students were selected as finalists for the scholarships and the final winners are candidates “judged to have the strongest combination of academic skills and achievements, extracurricular accomplishments, and potential for success in rigorous college studies.”