Brookwood Student Wins College-Sponsored National Merit Award

One senior is among 12 local students who received a college-sponsored award from the National Merit Scholarship Corporation.

Conner A. Jones, who plans to study aerospace engineering, received a scholarship from Auburn University. The scholarship will be $500 and $2,000, and it is renewable for up to four years of undergraduate study. The scholarship was awarded based on academic excellence.

Eleven other students from Collins Hill, Dacula, Mountain View, Norcross and Parkview high schools, and the Gwinnett School of Mathematics, Science and Technology also received scholarships. Only 2,900 students received the awards this year.

Each sponsoring college or university selected its winner from  finalists in the 2011 National Merit Scholarship Program who were planning to attend their institution. This year, 198 institutions are sponsoring students.

Students entered the competition as juniors by taking the 2009 Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test. The test was the initial screening for participants. The highest scoring students from each state were then named semifinalists. Finalists were then selected by a review of academic records; scores from two standardized tests; a recommendation from a school official; and an essay.

About 1.5 million students competed in the selection process.