Schools
8 Palo Alto Students Awarded $2500 National Merit Scholarships: List
All but one of the teens attend Palo Alto Unified School District schools.
![The students may use their awards at any regionally accredited U.S. college or university.](https://patch.com/img/cdn20/shutterstock/21854731/20240508/065712/styles/patch_image/public/shutterstock-793972774___08185552568.jpg)
PALO ALTO, CA — 8 Palo Alto teens have been awarded $2500 National Merit Scholarships, as the organization behind the scholarships announced a new round of 2024 winners on Wednesday.
The National Merit Scholarship Corporation announced that 2,500 high school seniors from across the nation will receive the scholarships, chosen from a talent pool of more than 15,000 outstanding finalists.
"National Merit $2500 Scholarship winners are the Finalists in each state judged to have
the strongest combination of accomplishments, skills, and potential for success in rigorous college studies," the organization announced. "The number of winners named in each state is proportional to the state’s percentage of the nation’s graduating high school seniors."
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They were chosen by a committee of college admissions officers and high school counselors who poured over information submitted by both the finalists and their high schools.
Here is the list of Palo Alto National Merit Scholarship winners.
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- Olivia Chiang. The Nueva School in San Mateo. Probable career field: Law
- Grace K. Gormley, Palo Alto High School. Probable career field: Journalism
- Samuel Jin, Henry M. Gunn High School. Probable career field: Statistics
- Jacqueline Li, Palo Alto High School. Probable career field: Mechanical Engineering (Robotics)
- Hanwen Shi, Palo Alto High School. Probable career field: Computer Science
- Jacob Winefeld, Palo Alto High School. Probable career field: Engineering
- Steve Zhang, Henry M. Gunn High School. Probable career field: Computer Science
- Luke Q. Zhou, Henry M. Gunn High School. Probable career field: Mechanical Engineering
This is the second announcement of winners in the 2024 National Merit Scholarship Program. On April 24, about 770 recipients of corporate-sponsored Merit Scholarship awards were named. On June 5 and July 15, some 3,600 college-sponsored Merit Scholarship winners will be announced.
All told, more than 6,870 high school seniors will receive National Merit Scholarships worth approximately $26 million.
Students may use their awards at any regionally accredited U.S. college or university.
This journey began in October 2022 when high school juniors took the PSAT/NMSQT, which served as an initial screen of program entrants. Last fall, the highest-scoring participants in each state, representing less than one percent of the nation’s high school seniors, were named Semifinalists on a state-representational basis.
From the Semifinalist group, over 15,000 students met the very high academic standards
and other requirements to advance to the Finalist level of the competition.
The majority of scholarships offered each year are underwritten by approximately 320 independent corporate and college sponsors.
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