Loudoun Seniors Earn College-Sponsored Merit Scholarships

LOUDOUN COUNTY, VA—Five students from the county have earned college-sponsored National Merit Scholarships among thousands of others across the country. The National Merit Scholarship Corporation announced the 3,500 college-sponsored scholarship recipients Wednesday, June 5. Among the winners:

• Prabhat B. Adusumalli of Ashburn (Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology) plans to study medicine at Virginia Commonwealth University.
• Caroline G. Kaplan of Ashburn (Broad Run High School) plans to study law at the University of South Carolina.
• Anna R. Thamasett of Ashburn (Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology) plans to study molecular biology at the University of South Carolina.
• Devon J. Casey of Sterling (Dominion High School) plans to study astrophysics at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University.
• Thomas M. Nazzaro of Leesburg (Heritage High School) plans to study at the University of Texas-Dallas.

The scholarships give students $500 to $2,000 each year for the undergraduate institution they plan to attend. This year, 173 higher education institutions in 43 states and the District of Columbia sponsored the awards.

The National Merit Scholarship program includes awards sponsored by colleges, businesses and the National Merit Scholarship Corporation itself. Corporate-sponsored and $2,500 National Merit-sponsored scholarship winners were announced earlier in the spring.

More than 1.6 million high school students were entered for the 2019 scholarships by taking the Preliminary SAT (PSAT) as juniors. That list was narrowed to 16,000 semifinalists in the fall. Semifinalists were the highest-scoring students in each state.

To advance to the finalist stage, semifinalists submitted a scholarship application with an essay and information about their extracurricular activities, awards and leadership positions. They must also have an outstanding record, SAT scores that reinforce their qualifying PSAT scores and a recommendation from a high school official. Around 15,000 met requirements to become finalists.

A total of 7,600 high school seniors will receive over $31 million in National Merit Scholarships in 2019. The next round of college-sponsored scholarship recipients will be announced on July 15.