Lexington One Students Win National Merit® College-Sponsored Scholarships

June 3, 2014

LEXINGTON, SC — Lexington High Senior Katherine Elizabeth Fleck and White Knoll High Seniors Alexandra C. Cordes and Trayton R. Miller earned National Merit® College-Sponsored Scholarships, announced by the National Merit® Scholarship Corporation.

These awards provide $500 to $2,000 annually for up to four years of undergraduate study at the institution financing the scholarship.

Fleck earned a National Merit University of Minnesota Scholarship. She is interested in a career in chemical engineering.

The University of South Carolina awarded Cordes a National Merit University of South Carolina Scholarship. She plans to study surgical medicine.

Miller received a National Merit University of Oklahoma Scholarship. He plans to pursue a career in journalism.

Fleck, Cordes and Miller were finalists in the 2014 National Merit® Scholarship program.

To become finalists, they competed with 1.5 million juniors in more than 22,000 high schools in the 2014 National Merit Scholarship competition.

They started the process by taking the Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test (PSAT/NMSQT®), which served as an initial screening of program applicants.

Based on these test scores, Cordes, Fleck and Miller were named semifinalists, which are the highest-scoring program entrants in each state and represent less than one percent of a state’s seniors.

To compete for Merit Scholarship awards, they met the very high academic standards and other requirements to advance to the Finalist level of the competition.