Eight Montgomery County Public Schools (MCPS) seniors are among about 700 students nationwide who have won awards in the 2010 National Achievement Scholarship Program for African American students.
 
The winners were selected from more than 160,000 African American students nationwide who participated in the program, which is privately financed and conducted annually by the nonprofit National Merit Scholarship Corporation (NMSC).

The eight MCPS winners are among 32 students in Maryland who will receive awards this year.

MCPS winners of $2,500 National Achievement scholarships and their schools are:

Montgomery Blair High School
Elfalem Y. Alemu
Redab O. Alnifaidy
Kamal K. Ndousse

Richard Montgomery High School
Jodie-Ann K. Asher
Esther E. Carlson
Yasmin Dagne

Poolesville High School
Nakutolab Desalegn

Walt Whitman High School
Rachel C. Lee

Since the first Achievement Scholars were named in 1964, more than 30,300 African American students have received scholarships worth more than $95 million for college undergraduate study.