Four Montgomery County Public Schools (MCPS) students have been selected as winners in the 2017 Junior Achievement Essay Competition, including one who has been named the grand prize winner.

Riya Ashby, a junior at Albert Einstein High School, was selected as the grand prize winner. Matthew Evenson, a senior at Clarksburg High School; Amanda Liu, a sophomore at Montgomery Blair High School; and Emily Stein, a senior at Winston Churchill High School, were selected as state winners. Additionally, Paint Branch High School won the Maryland award for having the most eligible applicants.

As the grand prize winner, Ms. Ashby will receive a $20,000 scholarship; Mr. Evenson, Ms. Liu and Ms. Stein will receive $10,000 scholarships as state finalists. Paint Branch High School will receive a $6,000 grant.

The competition, coordinated by Junior Achievement of Greater Washington, asked high school students from Virginia, Maryland and Washington, D.C., to compete for scholarships by writing an essay in response to the following question: "Several great entrepreneurs, including Bill Gates and Mark Zuckerberg, dropped out of college before getting their degrees. How important do you think a college education is to your future success?" Recipients of the scholarships will be honored at a ceremony this spring in Washington D.C. To read the winning entries, visit the Junior Achievement website.

The competition is sponsored by David M. Rubenstein, co-founder and co-CEO of The Carlyle Group, a global asset management company.