Two Needham Students Win National Merit Scholarship

NEEDHAM, MA — Two Needham students were named winners in the National Merit Scholarship Corporation's first group of scholarship recipients that included around 1,000 people nationwide.

The students — Harvard Wang and Lance Zhang — will receive funding from Norfolk Southern and Pfizer Inc., respectively. They were selected based on PSAT scores, grades, an essay, a school nomination, and an application that included extracurricular activities, awards and leadership positions. Wang plans to go into computer science and Zhang plans to go into hotel or restaurant management.

Ten Needham students were announced as semifinalists in September (finalists are not announced publicly by the corporation, only by individual high schools if they decide to do so). Roughly 16,000 students were selected as finalists, and 7,500 of them will win scholarships. The National Merit Scholarship Corp. will announce winners of the $2,500 award on May 12 and winners of the college-sponsored awards on June 2 and July 12.