Twelve seniors from five MCPS high schools have been awarded corporate-sponsored National Merit Scholarships financed by corporations, company foundations and other business organizations.

  The MCPS students are among 19 high school seniors in Maryland and 1,000 high school seniors nationwide to be selected in the first group of winners in the 56^th annual National Merit Scholarship Program. The scholars were selected from a pool of 15,000 students who advanced to the finalist level in the National Merit Scholarship competition and met criteria of their scholarship sponsors.

  Corporate sponsors provide National Merit Scholarships for finalists who are children of their employees, who reside in the communities they serve, or who plan to pursue college majors and careers the sponsor wishes to support.

  MCPS winners, their intended fields of study and sponsors are:

           Montgomery Blair High School

        Shilpa T. Kannan, medicine, CSC

        Thomas R. Zhang, applied mathematics, SAIC

        Winston Churchill High School

        Sonia S. Gaur, engineering, Lockheed Martin

        Richard Montgomery High School

        Wendy W. Cai, economics/science, SAIC

        Joshua G. Samuels, engineering, Mitre Corporation

        Wilbur E. Shirley, engineering, CACI International

        Poolesville High School

        Neil Chainani, electrical engineering, Lockheed Martin

        Sanjay Chainani, medicine/biology, Lockheed Martin

        Pranav Gokhale, business, Lockheed Martin

        Walt Whitman High School

        Colin F. Epperson, engineering, Sodexo

        Mahima Iyengar, environmental science, SAIC

        Jonathan S. Schear, engineering, Mary E. Beyerle Trust

  Most awards are renewable for up to four years of college undergraduate study and provide yearly stipends that range from $500 to $10,000 per year.  Some provide a single payment of $2,500 and $5,000. Winners can use their awards at any regionally accredited U.S. college or university of their choice.

  Additional National Merit Scholarship winners will be announced later this year.

National Merit Scholarship