February 20, 2019
By: Dwayne Page
A DeKalb County High School senior learned last week that she has been named a Finalist for the National Merit Scholarship Program.
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Madison Elizabeth (Madi) Cantrell, daughter of Todd and Jenny Cantrell, who qualified as one of 16,000 Semifinalists nationwide for this honor last fall is now among thousands of Finalists. The National Merit® Scholarship Program awards individual students who show exceptional academic ability and potential for success in rigorous college studies.
National Merit Scholarships worth more than $31 million will be offered this spring. About half of the Finalists will win a National Merit Scholarship, earning the Merit Scholar® title.
A variety of information is available for NMSC selectors to evaluate: the Finalist’s academic record, information about the school’s curricula and grading system, two sets of test scores, the high school official’s written recommendation, information about the student’s activities and leadership, and the Finalist’s own essay.
Beginning in March and continuing to mid-June, NMSC will notify the finalists at their home addresses if they are selected to receive a Merit Scholarship® award.
Madi is the 2018-19 Miss DCHS and she participates in various school clubs, including FBLA, Student Government, and Senior Beta Club, where she currently serves as president. She is also the treasurer of the 2019 senior class. She served as the Junior Usher for the Class of 2018, alongside Mr. DCHS, and earned the AP Scholar with Distinction award. She was voted Outstanding Underclassman during her Freshman and Sophomore years and attended Girls State in the summer of 2018. Madi has joined the prestigious 29+ club which recognizes students with an ACT score of 29 or higher. Upon graduation, Madi plans to study chemical engineering.
NMSC, a not-for-profit organization that operates without government assistance, was established in 1955 specifically to conduct the annual National Merit Scholarship Program. Scholarships are underwritten by NMSC with its own funds and by approximately 410 business organizations and higher education institutions that share NMSC’s goals of honoring the nation’s scholastic champions and encouraging the pursuit of academic excellence.
Over 1.6 million juniors in about 22,000 high schools entered the 2019 National Merit Scholarship Program by taking the 2017 Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test (PSAT/NMSQT®), which served as an initial screen of program entrants. The nationwide pool of Semifinalists, representing less than one percent of U.S. high school seniors, included the highest scoring entrants in each state. To become a Finalist, the Semifinalist and his or her high school had to submit a detailed scholarship application, in which they provided information about the Semifinalist’s academic record, participation in school and community activities, demonstrated leadership abilities, employment, and honors and awards received. A Semifinalist must also have an outstanding academic record throughout high school, be endorsed and recommended by a high school official, write an essay, and earn SAT® scores that confirm the student’s earlier performance on the qualifying test.