Two Evanston Township High School seniors were chosen from among thousands of finalists to receive a $2,500 scholarship through the National Merit Scholarship Program.
ETHS seniors Adrian Lafont Mueller and Seth Paternostro were selected from among 2,500 Merit Scholar designees whittled down from more than 15,000 finalists, according to a release from the high school district.
Finalists in the nationwide competition are judged based on their academic record, information about their school’s curricula and grading system, two sets of test scores, a written recommendation from a high school official and their activities and leadership record, according to the release. Scholarship winners are determined to have the strongest combination of skills, accomplishments and potential for success in college.
In October 2014 over 1.5 million juniors in roughly 22,000 high schools took the preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test, the release states. The test served as an initial screening of program entrants. The highest-scoring students in each state — which represent less than one percent of the nation’s high school seniors — were named semifinalists last fall.
The scholarships are awarded through the National Merit Scholarship Corporation, which was established in 1955 in the midst of the Cold War in response to a concerns that the U.S. was lagging behind in the scientific race and that the public was indifferent to rewarding scholastic accomplishment, according to the NMSC website. The organization was established “to reward intellectual accomplishment,” the website states.
Lee V. Gaines is a freelance reporter for Pioneer Press.