13 Washington Students Are National Merit Scholarship Winners

SEATTLE — 13 Washington state students have been named winners for the 2021 corporate-sponsored National Merit Scholarship Program.

The winners were announced on Wednesday and include 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 Evergreen State winners for the corporate-sponsored scholarships:

• Brian Chen, Interlake High School: National Merit Astellas Pharma US, Inc. Scholarship
• Jessica Na, Interlake High School: National Merit Boeing Scholarship
• Smriti Sankaran, Interlake High School: National Merit Boeing Scholarship
• Andrew Shaw, Interlake High School: National Merit Boeing Scholarship
• Michael Barron, Archbishop Murphy High School: National Merit Boeing Scholarship
• Caden Gradek, Mercer Island High School: National Merit - The PWC Charitable Foundation Scholarship
• Patrick Stiles, Kamiak High School: National Merit Boeing Scholarship
• Jennifer Xu, Kamiak High School: National Merit Raytheon Scholarship
• Kensho Gendzwill, Redmond High School: ational Merit Boeing Scholarship
• James Linder, Redmond High School: National Merit Liberty Mutual Scholarship
• Andrew Kim, Liberty High School: National Merit Boeing Scholarship
• Michael Guo, Skyline High School: National Merit Boeing Scholarship
• Sophia Sinnett, Edmonds-Woodway High School: National Merit Boeing Scholarship

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.”