Four GCS students have earned the prestigious National Achievement Scholarship, a division of the National Merit Scholarship Corporation (NMSC) that supports outstanding African-American students. The students were chosen from among 1,300 finalists who qualified based on their scores on the Preliminary SAT exam taken when they were juniors in 2013.

GCS scholarship winners are:

• Faith James, Southeast High, who is undecided on her career path
• Elizabeth Page, Southeast High, who plans to study music composition
• Grayson Rice, Early College at Guilford, who will pursue a career in biomedical engineering
• Sarah Tesfaye, Western High, who plans to study medicine

The National Achievement Scholarship Program began in 1964 specifically to honor scholastically talented African-American students. Since that time and by the completion of the 2015 program, more than 34,200 students will have received about $108 million in scholarship offers.

NMSC is forging a new relationship beginning next year with the UNCF, the nation’s largest minority education organization. The new program will replace the existing scholarships with financial assistance to high-achieving, underrepresented college graduates.