OCONOMOWOC, WI – June 7, 2017. Officials of the National Merit Scholarship Corporation (NMSC) announced the names of approximately 3,200 winners of the National Merit Scholarships financed by U.S. colleges and universities, including 80 Wisconsin students. Oconomowoc High School Senior Triston Charlson was named a College-Sponsored Merit Scholarship winner.
Oconomowoc High School Counselor Mr. Scott Bakkum remarked, “There have been few students that I have encountered in my career that have the academic credentials that Triston Charlson has. His determination and endless perseverance to meet and even exceed his academic goals are second to none. He is an extremely industrious young man who sets the bar of excellence as high as it can go and will settle for nothing else. “
According to the press release, officials of each sponsor college selected their scholarship winners from among the Finalists in the 2017 National Merit Scholarship Program who plan to attend their institution. These awards provide between $500 and $2,000 annually for up to four years of undergraduate study at the institution financing the scholarship. An additional group of Scholars will be announced in July, bringing the total number of college-sponsored Merit Scholarship recipients in the 2017 competition to approximately 4,000.
Over 1.6 million juniors in more than 22,000 high schools entered the 2017 National Merit Scholarship competition when they took the 2015 Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test, which served as an initial screen of program entrants. Last fall, approximately 16,000 Semifinalists were named on a state-representational basis in numbers proportional to each state’s percentage of the national total of graduating high school seniors. Semifinalists were the highest-scoring program entrants in each state and represented less than one percent of the nation’s seniors.
NMSC, a not-for-profit organization that operates without government assistance, was established in 1955 specifically to conduct the annual National Merit Scholarship Program. Scholarships are underwritten by NMSC with its own funds and by approximately 420 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. Visit www.nationalmerit.org for more information.
[PHOTO: Triston Charlson]
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