5 BCPS students named National Merit® Scholarship winners

TOWSON, MD. – The National Merit Scholarship Corporation announced yesterday that five Baltimore County Public Schools students are among the high school seniors who won scholarships sponsored by the corporation or by other businesses and organizations. The honored students are:

• Andrew N. Bortvin of Baltimore, who attends Towson High School and wants to pursue a career in neuroscience
• Vincent J. Ciattei of Baltimore, who attends Perry Hall High School and plans to become a mechanical engineer
• Lisa Ann Tang of Lutherville, who attends Dulaney High School and hopes to pursue a career in biology
• Kushal Byatnal of Cockeysville, who attends Dulaney High School and is interested in a physics career
• Maggie R. Cason of Freeland, who attends Hereford High School and wants to pursue a career in genetics

Bortvin, Ciattei and Tang are three of 2,500 Scholars to be awarded single-payment $2,500 scholarships from the National Merit Scholarship Corporation. Byatnal and Cason are two of approximately 1,000 Scholars to be awarded corporate-sponsored scholarship awards. Byatnal’s award, a National Merit Mary E. Beyerle Scholarship, was established by the estate of Beyerle to be awarded to students from Maryland, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania. Cason was awarded the National Merit Lockheed Martin Academic Scholarship, which is awarded to children of Lockheed Martin employees located throughout the world. Corporate-sponsored scholarships range in award amounts (from $500 to $10,000 per year) and are generally renewable throughout a student’s undergraduate career. The National Merit Scholarship Program was established in 1955 to honor scholastically talented American youth. It is conducted by National Merit Scholarship Corporation, a not-for-profit organization that operates without government assistance. By the conclusion of this year’s competition, about 8,000 National Merit Scholar Finalists will have won National Merit Scholarship Awards worth more than $35 million. In addition to the already-announced National Merit $2,500 Scholarship winners and corporate-sponsored winners, college-sponsored scholarships will be announced on May 29 and July 15. About 1.5 million juniors in some 22,000 high schools entered the 2013 National Merit Scholarship competition when they took the 2011 Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test (PSAT/NMSQT®), which served as an initial screen of program entrants. In September 2012, some 16,000 Semifinalists were designated 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. To be considered for a National Merit Scholarship, Semifinalists had to fulfill requirements to advance to Finalist standing. Each Semifinalist was asked to complete 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 school official and earn SAT scores that confirmed their qualifying test performance. From the Semifinalist group, some 15,000 met Finalist requirements.