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Three recent graduates of Eisenhower and MacArthur high schools have been selected as National Merit Scholars, widely regarded as one of the highest honors that can be earned by a high school student.
Itzel Bernier and Dylan Price, 2017 graduates of Eisenhower High School; and Benjamin Bolin, 2017 graduate of MacArthur High School are among 7,500 outstanding high school seniors from around the country to receive scholarships financed by companies, foundations, businesses, universities and the National Merit Scholarship Corporation itself.
\r\nThe process for students started in 2015 when each took the Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test (PSAT/NMSQT®), which served as an initial screen of program entrants. “You take the test in October of your Junior year and you don’t find out until your Senior year,” said Bolin. “It’s been on my mind since I took the test and I was really excited” when he heard the news that he was a National Merit semifinalist.
\r\nThe students moved onto the finalist level after they fulfilled additional requirements. They were chosen by a committee of college admissions officers and high school counselors that judged applicants from their combinations of accomplishment, academic skill and potential for success in rigorous college studies.
\r\nBernier and Price received scholarships from the University of Oklahoma. Bernier will study medicine and Price psychiatry. Bolin received a corporate sponsored scholarship from CACI International Inc. for studies in chemistry at the University of Tulsa.
\r\nThe National Merit Program was founded in 1955. The majority of scholarships provided each year are made possible by the support of approximately 420 independent corporate and college sponsors. These sponsors promote efforts to enhance educational opportunities for scholastically talented youth and to encourage them in their pursuit of academic excellence.
\r\nCONGRATULATIONS Ben, Dylan and Itzel!
\r\n#LawtonPS #BestNSW