Vienna Graduates Among Last 2019 National Merit Scholars

VIENNA, VA — The last National Merit Scholarship winners for 2019 include two graduates from Vienna. The additional 540 winners won scholarships sponsored by colleges and universities and were announced Monday.

Christian M. Aliferis of Madison High School won a scholarship to Vanderbilt University and plans to study music. The other winner, Theresa R. Sheehan of Paul VI Catholic High School, won a scholarship from University of Maryland and will study computer engineering.

The newly-announced winners are among 4,100 college-sponsored scholarship winners announced in June. College-sponsored scholarships run between $500 and $2,000 each year for up to four years at the financing college. This year, 173 colleges and universities sponsored scholarships in 43 states and DC.

In all, more than 7,600 National Merit Scholarships were given out in 2019. Other scholarships were sponsored by corporations and the National Merit Scholarship Corporation itself.

Over 1.6 million juniors were entered for National Merit Scholarships by taking the 2017 Preliminary SAT. The selection was narrowed down to 16,000 semifinalists based on the highest scorers in each state.

To become finalists, semifinalists completed a scholarship application with an essay describing leadership positions and contributions to school and community activities, had an outstanding academic record, and were recommended by a school official. Students had to also take the SAT and earn scores reinforcing their achievement on the PSAT.

Around 15,000 became finalists, and about half of these were chosen for National Merit Scholarships in 2019.

Other 2019 winners of National Merit Scholarships from Vienna are:

• Chloe E. Martin of Paul VI Catholic High School, scholarship from the PwC Charitable Foundation
• Richard H. Wang of Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology, scholarship from Northrop Grumman
• Devan S. Fink of Madison High School, scholarship from National Merit Scholarship Corporation
• Madeleine H. Kienzle of Marshall High School, scholarship from National Merit Scholarship Corporation
• Junhyun Chong of Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology, scholarship from National Merit Scholarship Corporation
• Siona Prasad of Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology, scholarship from National Merit Scholarship Corporation
• Fred W. Zhang of Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology, scholarship from National Merit Scholarship Corporation
• Samuel H. Cohen, Madison High School, scholarship from Purdue University
• Elizabeth R. Press of Madison High School, scholarship from University of Chicago
• Maren L. Kranking of McLean High School, scholarship from Northwestern University
• Matthew X. Chen of Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology, scholarship from University of Chicago