13 named National Merit Scholars

Advertiser Staff

Thirteen Hawai'i students are among more than 3,500 distinguished high school seniors nationwide who have won National Merit Scholarships.

These academic champions were chosen from a talent pool of more than 15,000 outstanding students who reached the finalist level in the 2005 National Merit Scholarship Program.

The winners of college-sponsored Merit Scholarship awards will be announced on May 25 and July 11.

Finalists in each state are judged to have the strongest combination of accomplishments, skills and potential for success in rigorous college studies. The number of recipients named in each state was based on the state's percentage of the national total of graduating high school seniors.

The winners were announced recently by officials of the National Merit Scholarship Corporation.

Hawai'i's winners of National Merit $2,500 Scholarships are:

Hanalani High School: Michelle Oh.

Iolani School: Reed Ayabe, Ivy Lee, Liane Hu.

Kalani High School: Kristy Chun.

Mid-Pacific Institute: Shelley Goto.

Moanalua High School: Jason Nagaoka.

Punahou School: Kimberly Nagamine, Elise Anderson.

Roosevelt High: Michael Pan.

Seabury Hall: Arwen Bradley.

Hawai'i's winners of Corporate-Sponsored Merit Scholarship awards are:

Punahou School: Benjamin Leider, United Airlines Foundation Merit Scholarship.

Iolani School: Matthew Won, Northrop Grumman Merit Scholarship.

Most corporate-sponsored scholarships are renewable for up to four years of college undergraduate study and range from $500 to at least $2,000 per year. Others provide a single payment between $2,500 and $5,000.

From the group of 15,000 finalists, approximately half will be selected as Merit Scholarship winners by the conclusion of the this year's competition. These 8,200 Merit Scholar designees will receive a total of about $33.9 million in scholarships for college undergraduate study.