Hartsville High Student, Michael Hang, Is National Merit Scholar
(May 18, 2011) – Michael Hang, an International Baccalaureate student at Hartsville High School, has been chosen as a National Merit Scholar, one of only 8,400 students nationwide to win the award.
As a National Merit Scholar, Mr. Hang is eligible to receive one of three types of awards:
• National Merit® $2500 Single Payment Scholarships
• Corporate-sponsored Merit Scholarship awards
• College-sponsored Merit Scholarship awards
Mr. Hang is a Palmetto Fellows Scholar and a member of the school’s Math Team. During the recent math competition at Frances Marion University, Mr. Hang recorded the highest individual result on an exam and won first place in the written competition. He is a musician who plays both trumpet and piano and was recently chosen to participate in the 2010 SC Band Directors Association Region Band.
This year’s competition for National Merit Scholarships began in October 2009 when approximately 1.5 million juniors in some 22,000 high schools took the Preliminary sat/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test (psat/nmsqt®), which served as an initial screen of program entrants. Last fall, the highest-scoring participants in each state, representing less than one percent of the state’s seniors, were named Semifinalists on a state representational basis. Only the 16,000 Semifinalists had an opportunity to continue in the competition.
From the Semifinalist group, 15,000 met the very high academic standards and other requirements to advance to the Finalist level of the competition. By the conclusion of the 2011 program, about 8,400 students will have earned the “Merit Scholar” title and received a total of nearly $35 million in college scholarships.
NMSC, a not-for-profit corporation that operates without government assistance, was founded in 1955 specifically to conduct the annual National Merit Scholarship Program. The majority of scholarships offered each year are underwritten by approximately 440 independent corporate and college sponsors that share NMSC’s goals of honoring scholastically talented youth and enhancing their educational opportunities.
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