Credit for the article to Northwood Mirror:
Senior Su Hae (Jessica) Jang is one step closer to winning a National Merit Scholarship, which can mean thousands of dollars each year of college scholarships, which can make a big dent in Jang’s tuition bill. Jang is one of 15,000 finalists among the more than 1.6 million entrants into the competition.
“I was really surprised to hear that I was named a finalist because the first time I heard it was from Mr. Spear in journalism class and before then I had no idea I would be a finalist.” Jessica Jang ‘20. As of now, Jessica wants to major in environmental science but she is also really interested in history and sociology. She is keeping her options open because she has a lot of interests.
Aside from being the highest-ranked student in the class of 2020, Jang rows for Northwood’s crew team, is an RA in Bergamini Dorm, is a student-leader of the Adirondack Youth Climate Summit, a leader of Northwood’s Sustainability Committee and for two years has been the editor-in-chief of The Mirror.
The National Merit Scholarship is offered by the National Merit Scholarship Corporation. Each year, almost 10,000 students receive scholarships based on their PSAT scores and other accomplishments. There are three main types of National Merit Scholarships: National Merit $2500 scholarships, corporate-sponsored scholarships, and college-sponsored merit scholarships.
According to the organization’s web site, the National Merit Scholarship Corporation (NMSC) was established in 1955 — a time in which there was concern that the United States was lagging behind in the cold war scientific race, but the public was indifferent to rewarding intellectual accomplishment. In response, the National Merit Scholarship Program was founded to identify and honor scholastically talented American youth and to encourage them to develop their abilities to the fullest. Through this nationwide competition, National Merit Scholarships are awarded to program Finalists and Special Scholarships are awarded to other high performing participants who meet a corporate sponsor’s eligibility criteria.