Congratulations to Alyssa Ertl and Benjamin Schultz for being named National Merit Scholarship Finalists.
Ertl and Schultz are seniors at Washington Park and Walden III, respectively, are just two of 15,000 students across the country chosen to compete for 7,400 scholarships worth up to $32 million.
In order to make it this far, both students had to demonstrate academic excellence, recommended by their high school principals and earn SAT scores that verified their earlier performance on similar exams.
The mission of the National Merit Scholarship program, according to their website, is to promote a love of learning:
- To promote a wider and deeper respect for learning in general and for exceptionally talented individuals in particular
- To shine a spotlight on brilliant students and encourage the pursuit of academic excellence at all levels of education
- To stimulate increased support from organizations that wish to sponsor scholarships for outstanding scholastic talent
Scholarship winners will be announced in April.