Winners have strong record of accomplishments and great potential for college success

Contact: Laurie Hogan (336) 370-8307
Created: 4/7/2010 2:20:24 PM  

Six Guilford County Schools (GCS) students are recipients of the prestigious National Achievement Scholarship, the National Merit Scholarship Corporation announced today. The students are among 800 Black American high school seniors selected for the awards.

More than 160,000 students entered the 2010 National Achievement Scholarship Program by taking the 2008 Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test (PSAT/NMSQT) as high school juniors. In September 2009, about 1,600 of the highest scorers were named semifinalists and 1,300 semifinalists advanced to the finalist level. Scholarship winners were selected from this group of outstanding students.

Of the 800 winners, 700 students received National Achievement $2,500 Scholarships, which are awarded on a regional basis. The remaining 100 students received corporate-sponsored Achievement Scholarship awards, which are given to residents of specific areas, children of sponsor company employees or students who plan to pursue a particular career path. Almost all corporate-sponsored scholarships are renewable and provide stipends that vary from $500 to $10,000 per year.

GCS students awarded National Achievement Scholarships are as follows:

Eboni M. Arrington from Western High (National Achievement $2,500 Scholarship); Vincent D. Brown from Southwest High (National Achievement $2,500 Scholarship); Samantha M. Derr from Grimsley High (National Achievement CSC Scholarship); Joseph L. Graves from Northwest High (National Achievement Reynolds American Foundation Scholarship); Ismail A. Kassim from The Early College at Guilford (National Achievement $2,500 Scholarship); and Brandon M. Mayfield from Northern High (National Achievement $2,500 Scholarship)