TORRINGTON – Wednesday, the National Merit Scholarship Corporation  officially named Torrington High School graduate Ethan Creagar as a scholarship winner – one of seven in the state and 3,500 nationwide.

“I’m super honored and excited to get the award – I really didn’t expect it at all. It came as a big surprise to be picked as one of the actual recipients,” Creagar, son of Bob and Ellen, said. “I’m really thankful for all my teachers at Torrington High School who helped me with the scholarship, and I’m really thankful for the administration that encouraged me to take the test and has really been supportive of everything in the high school. They’ve really done a good job over the last couple years.”

Creagar, who plans to study biomedical engineering at Colorado State University in Fort Collins, was one of approximately 1.6 million juniors in more than 22,000 high schools that entered the 2018 National Merit Scholarship Program when they took the 2016 Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test – which served as an initial screen of program entrants, according to a press release from NMSC.

“Last fall, approximately 16,000 semifinalists were named on a state-representational basis in numbers proportional to each state’s percentage of the national total of graduating high school seniors,” the release reads. “Semifinalists were the highest-scoring program entrants in each state and represented less than one percent of the nation’s seniors.

“To compete for Merit Scholarship awards, semifinalists first had to advance to the finalist level of the competition by fulfilling additional requirements. Each semifinalist was asked to submit a detailed scholarship application, which included writing an essay and providing information about extracurricular activities, awards, and leadership positions. Semifinalists also had to have an outstanding academic record, be endorsed and recommended by a high school official, and earn SAT scores that confirmed the qualifying test performance. From the semifinalist group, some 15,000 met requirements for finalist standing, and about half of the finalists will be Merit Scholarship winners in 2018.”

National Merit Scholars receive between $500 and $2,000 annually for up to four years of undergraduate study.

“NMSC, a not-for-profit corporation that operates without government assistance, was established in 1955 to conduct the National Merit Scholarship Program. The majority of National Merit Scholarships provided each year are made possible by the support of approximately 410 independent corporate and college sponsors. These sponsors join NMSC in its efforts to enhance educational opportunities for America’s scholastically talented youth and to encourage the pursuit of academic excellence.”

For more information, visit
www.nationalmerit.org.