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The National Merit Scholarship Corporation (NMSC) has announced the names of 15 additional Alachua County Public School (ACPS) 2024 graduates who have earned scholarships through the program this year.

The announcement brings the number of ACPS students who have been named National Merit Scholars this year to 21. More local students are expected to be recognized when the NMSC releases its final list of scholarship winners in mid-July.

Winners are selected from among the pool of students who achieve prestigious National Merit Scholarship Finalist status based on their high scores on the Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test, their academic records, contributions and leadership in school and community activities, an essay and a recommendation from someone at their high school. This year 34 ACPS students were named finalists.

Finalists have an opportunity to win one of three types of National Merit Scholarships. These include $2500 National Merit Scholarships funded by NMSC, Corporate-Sponsored Merit Scholarships funded by businesses and corporate foundations, and College-Sponsored Merit Scholarships sponsored by colleges and universities. The recipients of the College-Sponsored Merit Scholarships were announced today, including the 15 ACPS students. One local student was awarded a Corporate-Sponsored Scholarship, while five received National Merit Scholarships.

“We are so proud of what these students accomplished as students in our district,” said Superintendent Shane Andrew. “Their success is a tribute to their hard work and to the support of their families, teachers and schools, and we know they will pay it forward and go on to achieve great things in college and beyond.”

The students who have been named as National Merit Scholars so far this year include:

Melissa Li, Richard Feng, Sarah Rodkin, Laurie Wang, Emmanuel Zheng, Megan Chen, Nolan Gao, Max Kaplan, Edison Loftus, Warren Pfund, and Billy Yang from Buchholz High School; Isaac Savin, Shravya Mandava, August McDaniel and Noah Siegel from Eastside High School; Maheer Bansari, Peter Blay, Kyle Choe, Elle Guin, and Katelinn Kochtan from Gainesville High School.

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