Arlington Student Wins National Merit Scholarship

The National Merit Scholarship Corporation announced the first 1,000 corporate-sponsored National Merit Scholarship winners Wednesday, April 18. A McLean student is among the recipients.

Jack E. Horton of Washington-Lee High School will likely pursue engineering with his National Merit FTS International, LLC Scholarship.

He is among 23 from Virginia chosen for the corporate-sponsored scholarships.

Sponsored by 200 corporations, company foundations, and other businesses, the awards go to high school seniors. The awards range from $500 to $10,000 per year or one-time payments between $2,500 and $5,000. Recipients can use their awards at any regionally accredited U.S. college or university of their choice.

Scholars were selected from students that advanced from the finalists in the National Merit Scholarship competition and met criteria of their scholarship sponsors. Corporate scholarships are given to children of their employees, who are residents of communities the company serves, or who plan to pursue college majors or careers the company supports.

Over 1.6 million students were entered into the competition by taking the Preliminary SATs as juniors, which narrowed down to 15,000 finalists. Semifinalists submitted additional applications with an essay, information about extracurricular activities, leadership positions and awards, and a recommendation from a school official.

In all, 7,500 finalists will be selected for National Merit Scholarships totaling over $31 million. Winners are "judged to have the strongest combination of academic skills and achievements, extracurricular accomplishments, and potential for success in rigorous college studies," according to the National Merit Scholarship Corporation.

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