Bunn named National Merit Scholar

Bunn named National Merit Scholar

Marion Class of 2018 grad among winners of prestigious award

ralphhardin@gmail.com The National Merit Scholarship Corporation (NMSC) has announced approximately 3,500 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 2018 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. An additional group of Scholars will be announced in July, bringing the total number of collegesponsored Merit Scholarship recipients in the 2018 competition to about 4,000.

This year, 178 higher education institutions are underwriting Merit Scholarship awards through the National Merit Scholarship Program. Sponsor colleges and universities include 100 private and 78 public institutions located in 44 states and the District of Columbia.

College-sponsored Merit Scholarship winners announced today are a part of the distinguished group of about 7,500 high school seniors who will receive National Merit Scholarships for college undergraduate study worth over $31 million. Earlier this spring, NMSC announced winners of corporate-sponsored Merit Scholarship awards and National Merit $2500 Scholarships.

Named among this year’s National Merit Scholars was recent Marion High School graduate Claire Bunn. Bunn, who scored a 1540 on her SAT (in the top one percent of all the college entrance exams taken), was awarded the National Merit University of Georgia Scholarship.

Bunn said she could not have done it without the inspiration and encouragement of parents and the help of her teachers and counselor. She started by expressing an attitude of gratitude.

“I am grateful for all the support here at the high school,” said Bunn when she was named a National Merit semifinalist in March. “Every teacher has helped and encouraged me to reach for the stars. I’ve had a really great experience.”

She plans to major in biochemistry.

“I want to major in biochemistry and double major or minor in statistics,” said Claire. “My parents were a large push. Once, when I got good grades the reward was a periodic table shower curtain. So, there is a definite presence of math and science in the household.”

Marion Superintendent Dr.

Glen Fenter was quick to offer high praise for Bunn’s accolades.

“We are very proud of Claire and her tremendous achievement,” said Fenter. “Obviously, she is an extraordinarily gifted young lady with a tremendous work ethic and a unbelievably bright future. Claire is the kind of student that every teacher dreams of working with and obviously many of our faculty and staff worked very hard to help provide a strong foundation for her success.”

Fenter noted the rarity of having a National Merit Scholar and noted that the district was “extremely proud to claim her as a Marion Patriot.”

Over 1.6 million juniors in more than 22,000 high schools entered the 2018 National Merit Scholarship Program when they took the 2016 Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test, which served as an initial screen of program entrants.

Earlier in the year, approximately 16,000 Semifinalists were named on a state-representational basis in numbers proportional to each state’s percentage of the national total of graduating high school seniors. Semifinalists were the highestscoring program entrants in each state and represented less than one percent of the nation’s seniors.

To compete for Merit Scholarship awards, Semifinalists first had to advance to the Finalist level of the competition by fulfilling additional requirements. Each Semifinalist was asked to submit a detailed scholarship application, which included writing an essay and provid- ing information about extracurricular activities, awards, and leadership positions. Semifinalists 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. From the Semifinalist group, some 15,000 met requirements for Finalist standing, and about half of the Finalists will be Merit Scholarship winners in 2018.

NMSC, a not-for-profit corporation that operates without government assistance, was established in 1955 to conduct the National Merit Scholarship Program. The majority of National Merit Scholarships provided each year are made possible by the support of approximately 410 independent corporate and college sponsors.

These sponsors join NMSC in its efforts to enhance educational

opportunities for America’s scholastically talented youth and to encourage the pursuit of academic

excellence.

By Ralph Hardin