Wednesday, May 28, 2014

Scripps Ranch High student wins National Merit scholarship

Shea Polansky, a Scripps Ranch High School senior, has received a National Merit University of New Mexico scholarship, the National Merit Scholarship Corporation has announced.
Shea Polansky
Polansky is one of approximately 2,500 winners of National Merit Scholarships financed by U.S. colleges and universities. Officials of each sponsor college selected their scholarship winners from among the finalists in the 2014 National Merit Scholarship Program who plan to attend their institution.

These awards provide between $500 and $2,000 annually for up to four years of undergraduate study at the institution financing the scholarship.

Polansky is expected to enter the field of information technology. The University of New Mexico, located in Albuquerque, is a leading research university with renowned faculty and exceptional facilities for teaching and learning.

College-sponsored Merit Scholarship winners announced today are a part of the distinguished group of about 8,000 high school seniors who will receive National Merit Scholarships for college undergraduate study worth over $35 million. Earlier this spring, National Merit announced winners of corporate-sponsored Merit Scholarship awards and National Merit $2,500 Scholarships.

About 1.5 million juniors in some 22,000 high schools entered the 2014 National Merit Scholarship competition when they took the 2012 Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test, which served as an initial screen of program entrants. The highest-scoring program entrants in each state — more than 16,000 — represented less than one percent of the nation’s seniors.

Finalists had to submit a detailed scholarship application, which included writing an essay and providing information about extracurricular activities, awards, and leadership positions.To advance, they also had to have an outstanding academic record, be endorsed and recommended by a high school official, and earn SAT® scores that confirmed the qualifying test performance.

Visit the National Merit Scholarship website to find out more.