Sixteen high school seniors recently have won college-sponsored National Merit Scholarships, bringing the total number of Montgomery County Public Schools (MCPS) Merit scholars to 43 so far this year.

The most recently-announced local scholars are among 43 winners from Maryland and 2,700 winners nationally who were chosen to receive the scholarships financed by colleges and universities. College-sponsored awards provide between $500 and $2,000 annually for up to four years of undergraduate study at the institution financing the scholarship.

The MCPS college-sponsored scholarship winners, intended career fields and sponsoring institutions are:

§ Montgomery Blair High School: Eugene H. Cook, aerospace engineering, University of Maryland; Ruben L. Galbraith, law, University of Florida; Rudolph T. Henkel, applied emergency research, University of Maryland; Emily R. Purcell, undecided, Macalester College; Gregory S. Tucker, business law, University of Florida; Peter J. Yang, engineering, Rice University

§ James Hubert Blake High School: Matthew Lewis, social sciences, Oberlin College

§ Walter Johnson High School: Danila S. Apasov, undecided, University of Maryland; Yuri Awanohara, journalism, University of Southern California; Shira Kolnik, psychology, University of Maryland

§ Col. Zadok Magruder High School: Rebecca L. Balon, education (English professor); University of South Florida

§ Richard Montgomery High School: Benjamin D. Maggin, law, University of Maryland; Stanisla Datskovskiy, engineering, University of Maryland; Steven D. Shema, theatre performance, New York University

§ Quince Orchard High School: Padmapriya Atur, business, University of Maryland

§ Thomas S. Wootton High School: Scott Courlander, undecided, University of Delaware

The winners were chosen from among Merit Program finalists who will attend those institutions by officials of more than 200 private and public colleges and universities.

Students attained finalist status based on criteria such as exceptional performance on standardized tests and in the classroom, strong recommendations from school officials and a statement of goals and interests.

Earlier this year, 21 MCPS students won $2,500 awards funded by the National Merit Scholarship Corporation (NMSC). Listed by school, the winners and their intended career fields are:

§ Montgomery Blair High School: Jennifer C. Alyono, undecided; Jacob Burnim, computer science/research; Jennifer L. Caswell, government service; William L. Hwang, science research/engineering; Robert Jin, research; Rachel E. Maire, engineering; Vivian C. Wang, biological research

§ Winston Churchill High School: Caroline H. Cheng, undecided; Deborah A. Karpay, molecular biology/research

§ Walter Johnson High School: Susan G. Kahane, biomedical engineering; Denise M. Levitan, engineering

§ Richard Montgomery High School: Jacob D. Leibenluft, government service/politics; Ryan O. Mead, music/physics; Steven F. Shadman, finance; Jonathan L. Sherman-Presser, undecided; Qingyang Yuan, medicine

§ Paint Branch High School: Parminder Singh, medicine

§ Watkins Mill High School: Jacob C. Wilson, engineering

§ Walt Whitman High School: Katharine A. Kaplan, politics/law; Jared C. Sylvester, computer science

§ Thomas S. Wootton High School: Jenny Zhang, medicine

Six students earlier this year won corporate-sponsored scholarships. The winners, intended career fields and sponsors are:

§ Montgomery Blair High School: Ling Bei, biomedical engineering/medicine, LSI Logic Corporation.; John Li, architecture, Computer Sciences Corporation; Hao Ye, software design, Science Applications International Corporation

§ Richard Montgomery High School: Erica Morgan, chemistry, Assigned Counsel, Inc.

§ Thomas S. Wootton High School: Tiffany Fu, biology, Computer Sciences Corporation; Devarti Mitra, undecided, Science Applications International Corporation

The NMSC will announce additional college-sponsored Merit scholarships in July.