Ashton C. Edler
A Jefferson Parish Public School System (JPPSS) student was among the honorees today when the National Merit Scholarship Corporation (NMSC) released the names of the first group of winners in the 62nd annual National Merit Scholarship Program. Haynes Academy senior Ashton C. Edler is a corporate-sponsored National Merit Scholarship winner.
Edler, whose probable career field is astrophysics, won the National Merit Nelson F. Peterson Scholarship. This scholarship is sponsored by Genentech. Genentech, a member of the Roche Group, is based in South San Francisco and serves as headquarters for Roche pharmaceutical operations in the U.S. Roche is the world’s largest biotech company, with truly differentiated medicines in oncology, immunology, infectious diseases, ophthalmology and neuroscience. Roche is the world leader in in vitro diagnostics and tissue-based cancer diagnostics, and a frontrunner in diabetes management.
More than 1,000 distinguished high school seniors have won corporate-sponsored National Merit Scholarship awards financed by about 200 corporations, company foundations, and other business organizations. Scholars were selected from students who advanced to the Finalist level in the National Merit Scholarship competition and met criteria of their scholarship sponsors.
Corporate sponsors provide National Merit Scholarships for Finalists who are children of their employees, who are residents of communities the company serves, or who plan to pursue college majors or careers the sponsor wishes to encourage. Most of these awards are renewable for up to four years of college undergraduate study and provide annual stipends that range from $500 to $10,000 per year. Some provide a single payment between $2,500 and $5,000. Recipients can use their awards at any regionally accredited U.S. college or university of their choice.
Fifteen Jefferson Parish Public School System students were named National Merit Finalists this school year. This is the first announcement of National Merit Scholars in 2017. The NMSC will name recipients of National Merit $2500 Scholarships on May 10, and winners of college-sponsored Merit Scholarship awards on June 7 and July 17. By the conclusion of this year’s competition, about 7,500 academic champions will have won National Merit Scholarships worth more than $32 million.