Three high school students from Eden Prairie have been named winners of National Merit $2,500 Scholarships.
Hinano E. Kazama, Vivian Wang, and Jerry B. Zhang were among the 2,500 Merit Scholar recipients selected from a pool of more than 15,000 finalists in the 2023 National Merit Scholarship Program.
Kazama, who is interested in pursuing a career in neuroscience, and Wang, who has a probable career field in medicine, both attend Eden Prairie High School. Zhang, who is interested in mathematics, attends Minnetonka High School.
The National Merit Scholarship Corp. (NMSC) announced the names of this year’s scholarship recipients on Wednesday, May 10. The winners were chosen based on their combination of accomplishments, skills, and potential for success in rigorous college studies. They were selected by a committee of college admissions officers and high school counselors, who appraised a substantial amount of information submitted by both the finalists and their high schools.
The number of winners named in each state is proportional to the state’s percentage of the nation’s graduating high school seniors. The National Merit $2,500 Scholarship is supported by NMSC’s own funds, with additional funding provided by corporations and company foundations that sponsor awards through NMSC. Scholars may use their awards at any regionally accredited U.S. college or university.
Wednesday’s announcement marks the second in a series of releases for the 2023 National Merit Scholarship Program. The first was on April 26, which revealed about 840 recipients of corporate-sponsored Merit Scholarship awards. Two more releases are scheduled for June 7 and July 10, announcing about 3,800 college-sponsored Merit Scholarship winners.
When the competition concludes, over 7,140 academic champions will have won National Merit Scholarships worth a combined value of about $28 million.
NMSC is a not-for-profit organization that operates without government assistance and was founded in 1955 specifically to conduct the National Merit Scholarship Program.
Comments
We offer several ways for our readers to provide feedback. Your comments are welcome on our social media posts (Facebook, X, Instagram, Threads, and LinkedIn). We also encourage Letters to the Editor; submission guidelines can be found on our Contact Us page. If you believe this story has an error or you would like to get in touch with the author, please connect with us.