Twenty-Five Students Win National Merit Scholarships; Four Win Gates Millennium

May 4, 2011

Montgomery County Public Schools (MCPS) students continue to win scholarships for their outstanding academic performance and community involvement.

Today (May 4), it was announced that 25 MCPS students were awarded National Merit $2,500 Scholarships. On Tuesday, May 3, it was announced that four MCPS students have been awarded Gates Millennium Scholarships, which seek to reduce barriers for minority students that show high academic and leadership promise and have a financial need.

“The Class of 2010 set an all-time record by receiving more than $235 million in college scholarships and the Class of 2011 is well on its way to meeting, or exceeding, that amount,” said Superintendent Jerry D. Weast. “This is another indication of how our students, with the support of the nation’s best public school staff, are achieving at the highest levels.”

NATIONAL MERIT $2,500 SCHOLARSHIPS

Twenty-five MCPS students from eight different MCPS high schools have been awarded National Merit $2,500 Scholarships. The MCPS students were among 2,500 National Merit winners announced today and represented exactly half of the winners from the state of Maryland.

It has already been announced that 12 MCPS students have been awarded corporate-sponsored National Merit Scholarships and 13 MCPS students have been awarded National Achievement Scholarships for academically promising African American students. With today’s announcement, 50 MCPS students have received National Merit Scholarships this school year, with several more expected to receive additional scholarships in the coming months.

The 25 MCPS students who received the National Merit $2,500 Scholarships are:

· Michael C. Ahn, Winston Churchill High School
· Justin T. Chang, Richard Montgomery High School
· Meredith J. Chen, Richard Montgomery High School
· Andrew C. Das Sarma, Montgomery Blair High School
· Jonathan E. Frankle, Richard Montgomery High School
· Jewel Galbraith, Montgomery Blair High School
· Casey Goldvale, Montgomery Blair High School
· Alden J. Green, Richard Montgomery High School
· Tianhao He, Walter Johnson High School
· Jonathan C. Heaney, Bethesda-Chevy Chase High School
· Alina T. Hwang, Quince Orchard High School
· Leila Y. Islam, Winston Churchill High School
· Ajay Kannan, Montgomery Blair High School
· Isaac D. Kruger, Richard Montgomery High School
· Clara H. McCreery, Walt Whitman High School
· Heather S. Menefee, Walt Whitman High School
· Le Qi, Thomas S. Wootton High School
· Zachary A. Schloss, Walt Whitman High School
· Qinlan Shen, Montgomery Blair High School
· Joseph Tong, Richard Montgomery High School
· Sameer K. Bojja Venkatarama, Clarksburg High School
· Jingran Wang, Richard Montgomery High School
· Sandra C. Yan, Montgomery Blair High School
· Alison R. Zhang, Winston Churchill High School
· Anqi Zheng, Richard Montgomery High School

For more information about this scholarship see The National Merit Scholarship Corporation’s press release.

GATES MILLENNIUM SCHOLARS

Four MCPS students have been named recipients of Gates Millennium Scholarships.

These good-through-graduation scholarships can be used at any accredited college in the United States. Funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the amount of the scholarship is based on the cost of tuition, fees, books and living expenses for the 2011-2012 academic year, as well as the availability of grants and other scholarships. Only 1,000 of these scholarships are given out each year, and MCPS had four of Maryland’s 11 winners.

The four Gates Millennium Scholarship recipients from MCPS are:

· Ayesha Monga Kravetz, Quince Orchard High School
· Jackie Mutai, Wheaton High School
· Maria Paredes, Gaithersburg High School
· Phung Tran, Wheaton High School

To learn more about the Gates Millennium Scholarship Program, visit http://www.gmsp.org/.

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