BLYTHEWOOD – The National Merit Scholarship Corporation recently announced the names of 15 students in Richland Two who show exceptional academic ability and potential for success in rigorous college studies. Among those is Blythewood High School’s Benjamin L. Sears.
Sears has been named as one of 16,000 semifinalists in the 70th annual National Merit Scholarship Program competing for some 6,870 scholarships worth nearly $26 million.
Over 1.3 million high school juniors in about 21,000 high schools entered the 2025 National Merit Scholarship Program by taking the 2023 Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test which served as an initial screen of program entrants. The nationwide pool of semifinalists represents less than one percent of U.S. high school seniors, including the highest-scoring entrants in each state.
Finalists will compete for one of 2,500 National Merit $2500 Scholarships that will be awarded on a state-representational basis. About 770 corporate-sponsored Merit Scholarship awards will be provided for finalists who meet their specified criteria, such as children of the grantor’s employees or residents of communities where sponsor plants or offices are located. In addition, about 150 colleges and universities are expected to finance some 3,600 college-sponsored Merit Scholarship awards for finalists who will attend the sponsor institution.
NMSC Scholarship winners of 2025 will be announced between April and July.
Spring Valley High School students Henry S. Berg, Max O. Berg, Lee S. Dillon, Mary Ann Gardiner, Anagha C. Gowda, Emna Guedhami, Beverly F. Holton, Ibrahim Jatoi, Srianeesh Kalva, Fionn P. O’Connor, Vianne I. Phan, Zahi M. Siddique, Hayden J. Thorpe, and Ali A. Wallam are also Semifinalists.