Groveport Madison High School senior Lauren Barnes has been named a 2018 National Merit Scholarship Finalist, a designation given to the top one percent of students nationwide. The competition began in 2016 when approximately 1.6 million students nationwide took the Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test as juniors.
Students with the highest scores were chosen to advance to
the semifinals and required to submit a detailed scholarship application that
includes details about their academic record, school activities and community
involvement. The pool was further narrowed down to 15,000 finalists, who remain
in the competition for 7,500 prestigious scholarships.
Lauren, who hopes to major in environmental studies and eventually earn a law degree and she is excited about the opportunity to earn scholarship money to help pay for her education. “Climate change has always been something I can’t help but pay attention to,” she said. “As a kid, there was not much I could do about it. If I become an environmental lawyer, it will be my job to do something about it.”
She has already earned some college credit by taking Advanced Placement courses; she is also taking classes at Ohio State University this year through College Credits Plus. “My mother always taught me school is what you make of it. If you want to succeed, you will.”
The award is well deserved, said GMHS Principal Jaivir Singh. “Lauren is a hard worker and very dedicated to her studies,” he said. “We’re very proud of her for achieving this recognition.”
Three types of National Merit Scholarship will be announced
in the spring. Every finalist will compete for one of 2,500 National Merit
$2,500 scholarships that will be awarded on a state-representational basis.
About 1,000 corporate-sponsored Merit Scholarship awards will be provided by
approximately 230 corporations and organizations to Finalists who meet specific
criteria. In addition, about 190 colleges and universities are expected to
finance some 4,000 college-sponsored Merit Scholarship awards to finalist
attending the sponsoring institution.
The 2018 National Merit Finalist scholarship awards will be
announced in four nationwide news releases beginning in April and concluding in
July.