3 East Greenwich Students Win National Merit Scholarships

RHODE ISLAND — Three students from East Greenwich won $2,500 scholarships Wednesday from the National Merit Scholarship Corporation.

Eight students from Rhode Island received the award, meaning, East Greenwich students made up more than 37 percent of all National Merit Scholarship winners from the Ocean State.

Two of the town's winners are graduating seniors at East Greenwich High School: Julia Xu and Sara Gomez. Xu plans to study mechanical engineering, while Gomez will go to school for chemical engineering.

Elias Weisbord was the other winner from East Greenwich. Weisbord attends Moses Brown School in Providence and plans to study medicine.

Each year, thousands of students test to qualify for NMSC scholarships. The awards come in several rounds, including awards sponsored by corporations and by the NMSC itself. This round was for scholarships sponsored by NMSC.

"These Scholars were selected by a committee of college admissions officers and high school counselors, who appraised a substantial amount of information submitted by both the finalists and their high schools: the academic record, including difficulty level of subjects studied and grades earned; scores from the Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test; contributions and leadership in school and community activities; an essay written by the finalist; and a recommendation written by a high school official," a spokesperson for the National Merit Scholarship Corporation said.

The Rhode Island winners were:

• Lucy Dreier — Barrington High School
• Aditi Mehta — Mount Hope High School, Bristol
• Lauren Richard — La Salle Academy, Providence
• Kalliana Marek — Homeschool, Cranston
• Sara Gomez — East Greenwich High School
• Elias Weisbord — Moses Brown School, Providence
• Julia Xu — East Greenwich High School
• Elena Martha Hurtado Solberg — Classical High School Providence.