Contact: Tammy Lane • First Posted: Wednesday, May 27, 2009

Three seniors in Fayette County Public Schools are among the more than 2,800 winners of National Merit scholarships financed by colleges and universities: 

• Leslie C. Davis of Paul Laurence Dunbar High School, who plans to study English at Washington University in St. Louis;
• Abby L. Kirk of Lafayette High School, who is leaning toward business at the University of Kentucky; and
• Erin E. Wrightson of Henry Clay High School, who might major in education at Washington University in St. Louis.

The award recipients, including 53 students across Kentucky, were chosen by sponsor colleges from among finalists in the National Merit Scholarship Program who plan to attend their school. These scholarships provide between $500 and $2,000 annually for up to four years of undergraduate study.  

Another group of winners will be announced in mid-July, bringing the total number of college-sponsored Merit scholarship recipients to more than 4,700. 

Altogether, roughly 8,200 distinguished high school seniors will receive National Merit scholarships worth $36 million. Winners of corporate-sponsored Merit scholarship awards and National Merit $2,500 scholarships were announced earlier this spring.  

More than 1.5 million juniors in some 22,000 high schools entered the 2009 National MeritScholarship competition when they took the 2007 Preliminary SAT/National Merit ScholarshipQualifying Test (PSAT/NMSQT®), which served as an initial screening. More than 15,000 students met the requirements for finalist standing, and more than half of this group will be Merit scholarship winners in 2009. For more details, visit www.nationalmerit.org/.