Ten recent graduates of local high schools have earned National Merit Scholarships this year with another round of winners yet to be announced.
Christian Ehni of Ridgeview Classical Schools, Devon Bond of Severance High School and Jaimie Dang of Fossil Ridge High School were the latest winners, earning annual awards of $500 to $2,000 apiece annually for up to four years of undergraduate study at the institution financing their awards.
Ehni plans to attend the University of Alabama, where he will likely study mechanical engineering, according to a June 4 news release from the National Merit Scholarship Corporation.
Bond, a Windsor resident, plans to attend Texas A&M to study nuclear engineering. Dang, also a Windsor resident, plans to attend the University of Southern California to study neurology.
Tyson Balla of Rocky Mountain High School, Logan Googemos of Fort Collins High, Ia Reistad of Fossil Ridge High, Benjamin Sundheim of Berthoud High and Ethan Gopaul of Windsor Charter Academy were each selected to receive single-payment $2,500 scholarships in awards announced in May to use at any regionally accredited college or university in the United States.
Zoe Anderson of Fort Collins High and Anagha Mathur of Liberty Common School received awards from corporate sponsors of the National Merit Scholarship program that were announced in April. Those scholarships range from single-payment awards of $2,500 to annual awards of $1,000 to $10,000 for four years apiece, according to a news release. Anderson was selected from eligible children of Motorola Solutions employees, and Mathur from eligible children of Schneider Electric employees.
Eligibility for National Merit Scholarships begins with the Preliminary SAT tests students take when they are juniors in high school. Those tests serve as the initial screening for the National Merit Scholarship program, with students testing among the highest in their state — typically fewer than 1% of the nation’s graduating seniors — recognized as semifinalists.
There were 16,000 semifinalists for the 2025 awards, and 15,000 of them became finalists by fulfilling additional requirements, including submitting a detailed scholarship application that included a written essay and information about extracurricular activities, awards and leadership positions. Finalists also had to have an outstanding academic record, receive an endorsement and recommendation from a high school official, and earn SAT or ACT scores that confirmed their qualifying test performance.
More than 6,930 students in the 2025 class of high school graduates throughout the country will receive National Merit Scholarships for college undergraduate study worth nearly $26 million, the news release said. The final round of college-sponsored National Merit Scholarship winners will be announced in July.
Reporter Kelly Lyell covers education, breaking news, some sports and other topics of interest for the Coloradoan. Contact him at kellylyell@coloradoan.com,x.com/KellyLyell,threads.net/KellyLyell andfacebook.com/KellyLyell.news.
