April 18, 2012
Seven students from two different HISD schools have been named winners in the first round of National Merit Scholarships to be funded by private corporations this year.
Meghana Golla, Denes Marton, John Williams, Dana Felberg, Joseph Lewis, and Natalia Majewska (all from Bellaire High School) and Spencer Shen from the High School for the Performing and Visual Arts were among the approximately 1,000 graduating seniors from across the nation to be awarded scholarships financed by corporations, company foundations, and other business organizations
Recipients are selected from among students who advance to the finalist level in the competition and meet the criteria of their scholarship sponsors. Corporate sponsors provide scholarships to finalists who are children of their employees, residents of communities the company serves, or individuals who plan to pursue college majors or careers the sponsor wishes to encourage.
Below is a list of the students that includes their likely area of study and the organization that financed their particular scholarship.
- Meghana Golla: biomedical engineering, Waste Management
- Dana Felberg: engineering, BP Foundation
- Joseph Lewis: business, Chevron Corporation
- Natalia Majewska: engineering, Balfour Publishing
- Denes Marton: economics, Chevron Corporation
- Spencer Shen: undecided, National Distillers Distributors Foundation
- John Williams: engineering, Apache Corporation
Additional National Merit Scholarship winners will be announced on May 2, May 23, and July 9. By the conclusion of this year's competition, about 8,300 academic champions will have won National Merit Scholarships worth over $35 million.
