Contact: Tammy Lane • First Posted: Wednesday, May 6, 2009

Seven students in Fayette County Public Schools are among the distinguished high school seniors who have won $2,500 National Merit Scholarships: 

• Bryan Station High School: Zachary Davis, undecided major. 
• Henry Clay High School: Julia Hunter, art history. 
• Paul Laurence Dunbar High School: Alayna Boland, engineering; Jennifer Grasch, journalism; Michael Shen, finance; Hanyuan Shi, biochemistry; and Connie Wu, biomedical engineering.

The 2,500 winners were chosen from a talent pool of about 15,000 finalists in the 2009 National Merit Scholarship Program. These students, including 33 from Kentucky, were judged to have the strongest combination of accomplishments, skills and potential for success in rigorous college studies.  

Selected by a committee of college admissions officers and high school counselors, these scholars may use their awards at any regionally accredited U.S. college or university.  

This is the second announcement of winners for 2009. On April 22, about 1,000 recipients of corporate-sponsored Merit Scholarship awards were named, and on May 27 and July 13, some 4,700 college-sponsored Merit Scholarship winners will be announced.  

By the conclusion of this year’s competition, about 8,200 academic champions will have won scholarships worth nearly $36 million. For more information, visit www.nationalmerit.org.