Friday, April 13, 2007

Allen High School senior wins $2,500 National Merit Scholarship

By Pegasus News wire

Haley M. Pittman prior to receiving her award.

ALLEN, Texas ─ Allen High School senior Haley M. Pittman has been selected as the winner of a 2007 National Merit $2,500 Scholarship.

Pittman, Russell Lacock, Danielle Oldfield and Mary Richardson were named National Merit Scholarship Finalists in February after ranking in the top percentile of more than 1.4 million students who took the Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test.

Thereafter, every finalist competes for the $2,500 single-payment scholarships, which are awarded on a state-representational basis. Winners are selected without consideration of family financial circumstances, college choice or major and career plans.

About the 2007 Merit Scholarship Competition

Not provided by Allen ISD

Pittman after receiving the award, during which she repeatedly exclaimed she was "gettin' paid, gettin' paid, 'nah mean?"

From more than 1.4 million students who entered the 2007 National Merit Scholarship Program, only about 16,000 were named Semifinalists. They were designed on a state representational basis, in proportion to each state’s percentage of the national total of high school graduating seniors.

In order to advance in the competition and be considered for a Merit Scholarship award, a Semifinalist had to become a Finalist by fulfilling several requirements that included submitting a detailed scholarship application and presenting a record of very high academic performance.

All winners of about 8,200 Merit Scholarship awards are being chosen from the group of approximately 15,000 distinguished Finalists.

For more information on the National Merit Scholarship program, visit www.nationalmerit.org.

Source: Allen ISD

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