Conant High School senior awarded National Achievement Scholarship

A senior at Conant High School recently received an award for academic achievements from the National Merit Scholarship Corporation, and is the only student representing Township High School District 211 for this award.

Mariah Ghant was one of 800 outstanding black American high school seniors who earned a $2,500 Achievement Scholarship award through the National Achievement Scholarship Program. These awards, totaling more than $2 million, are financed by grants from 34 corporate organizations and professional associations, and by the nonprofit National Merit Scholarship Corporation.

The National Achievement Scholarship Program is a privately financed academic competition established in 1964, specifically to honor scholastically talented black youth and to provide scholarships to a substantial number of the most outstanding participants in each annual competition.

The Achievement Scholar designees include 700 recipients of National Achievement $2,500 Scholarships. All students who advanced to the Finalist level in the 2013 competition were considered for these single-payment scholarships, which were awarded on a regional representation basis in proportion to the population of black Americans in each geographic region.

More than 160,000 students entered the 2013 National Achievement Scholarship Program by requesting consideration in the competition when they took the 2011 Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test (PSAT/NMSQT) as high school juniors. In September 2012, approximately 1,600 of the highest scorers were named Semifinalists on a regional representation basis. To continue in the competition, Semifinalists had to fulfill requirements for Finalist standing, which included having a record of consistently high academic performance, being endorsed and recommended by an official from their high school, earning SAT scores that confirmed their PSAT/NMSQT performance, and writing an essay.

From the Semifinalist pool, some 1,300 advanced to the Finalist level, and the 800 National Achievement Scholarship winners were selected from this group of outstanding students. Achievement Scholar awardees are Finalist candidates judged to have the strongest record of accomplishments and greatest potential for academic success in college.

For information on the scholarship, visit www.nationalmerit.org.

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