Several Fort Smith students were named National Merit Scholarship winners on Tuesday, joining more than 6,930 high school seniors nationwide who will receive the scholarships for college undergraduate study in 2025.
The students named Tuesday will receive college-sponsored scholarships between $500 and $2,000 annually for up to four years at the financing institution.
The Fort Smith students, their high schools, sponsoring institutions and probable career fields include:
Rajaa Kaddoura, of Southside High School, University of Arkansas at Fayetteville, medicine.
Mackenzie Erin Settlage, Southside High School, University of Arkansas at Fayetteville, civil engineering.
Jiya N. Shah, Southside High School, University of Texas at Dallas, biomedical engineering.
Tegan Stimac, of Greenwood High School, University of Tulsa, mechanical engineering.
Fellow National Merit scholars were announced as recipients of corporate-sponsored awards in April and as winners of $2,500 scholarships on May 7. Additional recipients of college-sponsored awards will be announced July 14, with the nearly 7,000 total academic scholars receiving roughly $26 million once all names are released.
The college-sponsored scholarship winners were selected by officials from a total of 246 higher education institutions across 42 states and the District of Columbia.
The winners were part of a pool of more than 16,000 semifinalists with the highest scores on the 2023 preliminary SAT and the National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test. From there, semifinalists were asked to submit a detailed scholarship application that included an essay, an account of their extracurricular activities, awards and leadership positions.
Over 15,000 students met the requirements to become finalists this year.
The number of winners in each state is proportional to the state’s percentage of the nation’s high school senior graduates. The scholarships are funded by the National Merit Scholarship Corporation, a nonprofit founded in 1955 to conduct the scholarship program, and company sponsors.
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