By Staff
from staff reports
Kenneth &#8220Kelly” Stallworth has been named a National Merit semifinalist by the National Merit Corporation.
Stallworth, a senior at T.R. Miller High School, will have an opportunity to coninute in the competition for some 8,200 Merit Scholarship awards, worth $33 million.
Stallworth is one of 16,000 semifinalists in the nation.
To be considered for a Merit Scholarship award, semifinalists must advance to the finalist level of the competition by fulfilling several requirements. About 90 percent of the semifinalists are expected to attain finalist standing, and approximately half of the finalists will be selected as Merit Scholarship winners, earning the Merit Scholar title.
Established in 1955 specifically to conduct the annual National Merit Program, NMSC is a not-for-profit organization that operates without government assistance. Scholarships awarded through the program are underwritten by NMSC's own funds and approximately 500 business organizations and higher education institutions that share NMSC's goals of honoring the nation's scholastic champions and encouraging the pursuit of academic excellence.
More than 1.4 million juniors in nearly 21,000 high schools entered the 2007 National Merit Program by taking the 2005 Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test, which served as an initial screen of program entrants. The nationwide pool of Semifinalists, which represents less than one percent of U.S. high school seniors, includes the highest scoring entrants in each state. The number of semifinalists in a state is proportional to the state's percentage of the national total of graduating seniors.
To become a finalist, a semifinalist must have an outstanding academic record throughout high school, be endorsed and recommended by the school principal, and earn SAT scores that confirm the student's earlier qualifying test performance. The semifinalist and a school official must submit a detailed scholarship application, which includes the student's selfdescriptive essay and information about the semifinalist's participation and leadership in school and community activities.
Approximately 15,000 semifinalists will advance to the finalist level, and it is from this group that all Merit Scholarship winners will be chosen. Merit Scholar designees are selected on the basis of their skills, accomplishments, and potential for success in rigorous college studies, without regard to gender, race, ethnic origin, or religious preference.
Three types of Merit Scholarship awards will be offered in 2007. Every Finalist will compete for one of 2,500 National Merit $2500 Scholarships that will be awarded on a state representational basis.
In addition, some 300 corporations and business organizations will underwrite about 1,100 corporate-sponsored scholarships for Finalists who meet their specified criteria, such as children of the grantor's employees or residents of communities where sponsor plants or offices are located.
Also, about 200 colleges and universities are expected to finance some 4,600 college-sponsored Merit Scholarship awards for Finalists who will attend the sponsor institution.
Merit Scholarship winners of 2007 will be announced in four nationwide news
releases beginning in April and concluding in July. These scholarship recipients will join
more than 242,000 other distinguished young people who have earned the Merit Scholar title.
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Semifinalists: 2007 National Merit Scholarship Program
BREWTON
T. R. MILLER H. S.
121 Stallworth, Kenneth K.