Second ASMSA grad receives National Merit Scholarship

A second recent Arkansas School for Mathematics, Sciences, and the Arts graduate from Benton was recently named in the latest round of scholarships from the National Merit Scholarship Corporation.

ASMSA graduate Dillon Meaders was included among

3,200 recipients announced this month of National Merit Scholarships financed by colleges and universities in the United States. Officials of each sponsor college selected their scholarship winners from among more than 15,000 finalists in the 2017 National Merit Scholarship Program who plan to attend their institutions. The awards provide

$500-$2,000 annually for up to four years of undergraduate study at the institution financing the scholarship.

Meaders received the National Merit University of Arkansas, Fayetteville Scholarship. Automotive mechanical engineering is listed as his probable career field.

Additional college-sponsored scholarships will be announced in mid-July. College-sponsored awards will make up about 4,000 of the awards presented to 7,500 recent high school seniors during the 2017 competition.

More than 180 institutions are underwriting awards this year through the 62nd annual National Merit Scholarship Program. Sponsor colleges and universities include

103 private and 79 public institutions in 44 states and the

District of Columbia.

Corporate-sponsored awards were announced in April and 2,500 Merit Scholar designees were chosen in May for scholarships of $2,500 each. Corporate sponsors provide scholarships for finalists who are children of their employees, residents of communities they serve or plan to pursue college careers they wish to encourage. No local students were included in the corporate awards, but ASMSA graduate Joseph Sartini, also of Benton, received a National Merit $2,500 Scholarship.

Winners of the $2,500 Scholarships are the “finalists in each state judged to have the strongest combination of accomplishments, skills and potential for success in rigorous college studies.” The number of winners named in each state is proportional to the state’s percentage of the nation’s recent high school graduates.

Sartini’s listed probable career field is computer science. His award is supported by funds from the National Merit Scholarship Corporation.

The $2,500 Scholars were selected by a committee of college admissions officers and high school counselors. They appraised information submitted by the finalists and their high schools.

National Merit finances most of the single-payment $2,500 Scholarships. Corporations and company foundations can sponsor awards and help underwrite the scholarships with grants in lieu of administrative fees.

More than 1.6 million juniors in more than 22,000 high schools entered the 2017 competition through the 2015 Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test, which served as an initial screen of program entrants. Approximately 16,000 semifinalists were named in the fall on a state-representational basis. Semifinalists were the highest-scoring program entrants in each state and represented less than one percent of the nation’s seniors.

Each semifinalist was asked to submit a detailed scholarship application, which included an essay and information about extracurricular activities, awards and leadership positions. Semifinalists were required to obtain high academic standing, be endorsed and recommended by a school official and earn test scores to confirm their performance on the qualifying test.

About 15,000 semifinalist met the requirements to earn finalist standing and half will receive scholarships during the 2017 program. Scholarships awarded this year will exceed $32 million for recent graduates.