Albuquerque Public Schools
More National Merit Scholarships Awarded to APS Seniors
Five La Cueva graduates and one each from eCADEMY, Eldorado receive awards.
Seven Albuquerque Public Schools graduates have earned National Merit Scholarships financed by U.S. Colleges and universities.
APS graduates selected for the honor are:
- Ryan M. Fried, La Cueva High School, plans to study environmental engineering at Texas Tech University
- Gwenyth M. Graham, La Cueva, plans to study economics at the University of Alabama
- Raphael Z. Landau, La Cueva, plans to study biomedical engineering at the University of New Mexico
- Sasha S. Palko, eCADEMY High School, plans to study electrical engineering at the University of New Mexico
- James R. Stuart, La Cueva, plans to study mechanical engineering at the University of Central Florida
- Levi S. Vugrin, of Eldorado High School, plans to study mathematics at the University of New Mexico
- Emily Wang, La Cueva, plans to pursue a career in medicine at the University of New Mexico
The National Merit Scholarship Corporation announced the awards last week.
The awards provide between $500 and $2,000 annually for up to four years of undergraduate study at the institution financing the scholarship.
High school juniors entered the 2024 National Merit Scholarship Program when they took the 2022 Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test. Last fall, more than 16,000 Semifinalists were named on a state-representational basis. Semifinalists were the highest-scoring program entrants in each state and represented less than one percent of the nation’s seniors.
To compete for Merit Scholarship awards, Semifinalists first had to advance to the Finalist level of the competition by fulfilling additional requirements. Each semifinalist was asked to submit a detailed scholarship application, which included writing an essay and providing information about extracurricular activities, awards, and leadership positions. Semifinalists also had to have an outstanding academic record, be endorsed and recommended by a high school official, and earn SAT or ACT scores that confirmed the qualifying test performance. From the semifinalist group, over 15,000 met the requirements for Finalist standing, and about half of the Finalists will be Merit Scholarship winners in 2024.