Corporate scholarships announced for local students

Two dozen San Diego County high school seniors have been awarded corporate-sponsored scholarships in the first group of winners in the 66th annual National Merit Scholarship Program.

Roughly 1,000 distinguished students have won the awards nationally, chosen from finalists in the National Merit Scholarship competition. Corporate sponsors provide scholarships for finalists who are children of employees, residents of communities the company serves, or who plan to pursue majors or careers the sponsor wishes to encourage. Most awards are renewable for up to four years of college and provide stipends from $1,000 to $10,000 per year. Some are a single payment between $2,500 and $5,000.

By the end of the 2021 competition, about 7,500 finalists will have received National Merit Scholarships totaling nearly $30 million. In San Diego County, scholarship recipients are:

Calvin Christian High School: Joshua R. Yu, National Merit Molex Scholarship

Canyon Crest Academy: Irene Huang, Richard B. Shi, National Merit Pfizer Inc. Scholarship; Daniel Diandian Li, Michael H. Shia, National Merit Raytheon Scholarship; James Wright, National Merit Northrop Grumman Scholarship

Carlsbad High School: Ravi Pathak, National Merit ViaSat Scholarship

Mission Hills High School: Jaedyn C. Hoenig, National Merit ViaSat Scholarship

Mount Everest Academy: Yusuf Z. Amanullah, National Merit ViaSat Scholarship

Mt. Carmel High School: Amita V. Ram, National Merit Leidos Inc. Scholarship

Poway High School: Kaitlyn R. Chan, National Merit Bristol-Myers Squibb Company Scholarship

Rancho Bernardo High School: Kate S. Ahn, Adam A. Khoja, National Merit Northrop Grumman Scholarship

San Dieguito Academy: Emily Liang, National Merit Novartis Scholarship

San Marcos High School: Aneesh Bonthala, National Merit The PWC Charitable Foundation Scholarship

Scripps Ranch High School: Arathi S. Nair, National Merit Raytheon Scholarship, Raymond Z. Sun, National Merit Sony Electronics Inc. Scholarship; Ryan A. Vanny, National Merit Northrop Grumman Scholarship

The Bishop’s School: Andrew L. Kessler Jr., National Merit ViaSat Scholarship; Eric M. Pan, Evan T. Ren, National Merit Novartis Scholarship

Torrey Pines High School: Sean M. Zielinski, National Merit Pfizer Inc. Scholarship

Westview High School: Gary J. Lin, National Merit Ametek Scholarship; Allen J. Zhang, National Merit Pfizer Inc. Scholarship

— Laura Groch is a reporter for The San Diego Union-Tribune