Plainfield Senior Wins National Merit Scholarship

Plainfield High School – Central Campus senior Emma Turnbull has been named a 2014 National Merit Scholarship Award recipient.

Turnbull is one of only 2,500 students nationwide to win a $2,500 National Merit Scholarship, underwritten directly by the National Merit Scholarship Corporation.

She was chosen from among about 15,000 finalists nationwide, including Plainfield South High School senior Erin Nielsen. Turnbull joins more than 300,000 other distinguished students who have earned the National Merit Scholar title.

These exceptional students were chosen by a committee of college admissions officers and high school counselors based on their academic records, scores from standardized tests, contributions to and leadership in school and community activities. Finalists also had to write an essay and submit a recommendation from a high school official.

More than 1.5 million high school juniors in over 22,000 high schools nationwide entered the 2013-14 National Merit Program by taking the 2012 Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test.

The 2013-2014 school year is the 59th year of the prestigious program, which honors academically talented high school seniors and lets them compete for 8,000 National Merit Scholarship awards, worth more than $35 million.

About 1,000 corporate-sponsored scholarships were awarded earlier this spring, funded by about 240 corporations and business organizations for finalists who meet those organizations’ criteria.

And, about 200 colleges and universities are expected to finance about 4,500 college-sponsored Merit Scholarship awards for Finalists attending their sponsoring institution later this month.