2 UCS Seniors Win $2,500 National Merit Scholarships

Two bright Utica Community Schools seniors were among only 2,500 graduating high school students in the country to earn a National Merit Scholarship.

Sanders Aspelund, of , and Joshua Barthel, of the Utica Academy for International Studies, will receive a $2,500 National Merit Scholarship Corporation scholarship. The students were judged based on possesing the strongest combination of accomplishments, skills and potential for success in rigorous college studies.

National Merit Scholar designees were chosen by a committee of college admissions officers and high school counselors from a pool of more than 15,000 finalists in the 2012 National Merit Scholarship program.

The current National Merit Scholarship process began in 2010  when approximately 1.5 million students in 22,000 high schools took the Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test, which serves as the initial screening process.

Last fall, 16,000 of the top scoring students – about one percent of all U.S. high school seniors – were in the program. Utica Community Schools had eight students named semi-finalists this year.

From the semifinalists group, 15,000 students met the very high academic standards and other requirements to advanced to the finalist level. In addition to National Merit scholarships, the competition also awards scholarships provided by colleges and universities  and corporations. By the end of the 2012 program, approximately 8,300 finalists will earn the “Merit Scholar” title and receive approximately $35 million in college scholarships.