Shady Side Seniors Win National Merit Scholarships

Four Shady Side Academy seniors have been awarded scholarships in the 57th annual National Merit Scholarship Program, thus earning the distinguished title of National Merit Scholar.

Three students won National Merit $2500 Scholarships, while one student won a corporate-sponsored Merit Scholarship. Additional college-sponsored National Merit Scholarship winners will be announced in July.

The three National Merit $2500 Scholarship winners were Jenna Hebert of Edgewood, Christopher Leech of Squirrel Hill and Vivek Nimgaonkar of Point Breeze.

Hebert and Nimgaonkar both plan to attend the University of Pennsylvania next year, while Leech plans to attend Dartmouth College. Nationwide, 2,500 National Merit $2500 Scholarship winners were chosen from a pool of more than 15,000 National Merit finalists.

The winners are the finalists in each state that were judged to have the strongest combination of accomplishments, skills and potential for success in rigorous college studies, as determined by a committee of college admissions officers and high school counselors. Scholars may use these single-payment awards given by the National Merit Scholarship Corporation (NMSC) at any regionally accredited U.S. college or university.