West Chester Students Win Elite Corporate National Merit Scholarship

WEST CHESTER, PA — Students from West Chester have joined a tiny percentage of elite students around the nation to be named a corporate-sponsored National Merit Scholar.

About 700 winners nationwide were selected from a pool of 16,000 semifinalists, which were in turn selected from 1.6 million students who took the PSAT last fall.

Among them are West Chester East's Dinith Halambage, who plans to study anesthesiology. He was awarded the Johnson and Johnson-sponsored scholarship.

West Chester resident Anne Zhu, of Unionville High School, plans to study public health. She was awarded the United Services Automobile Association scholarship.

Corporate sponsors provide scholarships to finalists who are children of their employees, residents of communities the company serves, or who plan to pursue college majors or careers the company wishes to encourage.

The awards range from $1,000 to $10,000 per year for up to four years of undergraduate study. Exact amounts are not disclosed for specific students.

High school juniors automatically enter into the competition by taking the PSAT. High scorers are then invited to complete a detailed scholarship application, including an essay, information on leadership and extracurricular activities, and more.