Countywide : 14 Local Teens Win Merit Scholarships

Fourteen county teen-agers are among 131 Californians and 2,600 students nationwide to win merit scholarships from colleges and universities this year, the National Merit Scholarship Corp. announced this week.

The awards, in which about 200 institutions give $250 to $2,000 annually for up to four years of undergraduate study, are part of the corporation’s $25-million scholarship program.

The program will help 6,700 high school seniors finance their higher education.

In Orange County, the latest winners and the college of their choice are: Lori D. Achman of Huntington Beach, University of Houston; Michelle Barbarotta of Anaheim, UC Irvine; Alex L. Gascoigne of Westminster, UCI; Melissa E. Hardy of Mission Viejo, Brigham Young University; Clarice A. Ho of Brea, USC; Christine M. Johnson of Huntington Beach, College of William and Mary in Virginia; Junsun A. Kim of Yorba Linda, Boston University; Toshi C. Nakamura of Laguna Niguel, UC Santa Barbara; David R. Pyle of Huntington Beach, USC; Matthew J. Reisdorf of Mission Viejo, Rice University in Texas; Kate C. Staiger of Mission Viejo, Northwestern University in Illinois; Rajesh S. Swaroop of Newport Beach, USC; Brent A. Werner of Irvine, Kenyon College in Ohio, and Jeff K. Yuan of Irvine, Baylor University in Texas.

Winners were selected from more than 1 million students in 19,000 U.S. high schools who participated in the 1994 merit scholarship program through the Pre-Scholastic Aptitude Test.

Based on test scores, grades, recommendations from school principals and information about activities, interests and goals, 14,000 students were chosen as finalists.

More than 3,000 scholarship winners have already been announced, and a final set of awards will be given out in late July.