10 Win National Merit Scholarships

After national competition, 10 Ventura County high school graduates have won prestigious Merit Scholarships that pay as much as $2,000 a year toward college tuition.

The Illinois-based National Merit Scholarship Corp. winnowed a group of about 15,000 nationwide semifinalists down to about 1,700 recipients, based in part by their scores on the PSAT, a preliminary college board exam.

Like their peers across the nation, the local whiz-kids were selected because of their high grades, recommendations from school principals, school activities and other factors, the corporation announced Monday.

The colleges that the students plan to attend this fall will finance the scholarships, which range from $250 to $2,000 annually for tuition.

“I think it is an honor for our county to have this many Merit Scholars,” said Sandra Shackelford, the county assistant superintendent of educational services. “I think it reflects the excellent efforts on the part of the students, the parents and the schools.”

Thousand Oaks High School graduated the most local winners--three--with Quincy Chen planning to attend Rice University, Jessica Rich headed for Carleton College and Clifford Wang for USC.

Other county Merit Scholars include Westlake High graduate Brent Waters, UCLA; La Reina High graduate Nicole Addington, Drake University; Rio Mesa High graduate Jessica Blois, UC San Diego; Thacher School graduate Brady Huang, University of Rochester; St. Bonaventure High graduate Larry Kim, Claremont McKenna College; Buena High graduate Angela Leeth, Texas A&M; University; and Villanova Preparatory School graduate Case Lewis, Vanderbilt University.