Northfield High School senior Muriel Carpenter has been awarded the National Merit $2500 Scholarship. Carpenter was one of 15,000 finalists in this year’s national program and one of three Northfield seniors to be named a National Merit semifinalist. The other two were Jasmine Barksdale and Parker Patterson.

Scholarship winners were chosen by a committee of college admissions officers and high school counselors. The committee appraised a substantial amount of information submitted by both the finalists and their high schools: the academic record, including difficulty level of subjects studied and grades earned; scores from two standardized tests; contributions and leadership in school and community activities; a clep study guide composed by the finalist; and a recommendation written by a high school official. The number of winners named in each state is proportional to the state’s percentage of the nation’s graduating high school seniors.

National Merit Scholarship Corporation (NMSC), a not-for-profit corporation that operates without government assistance, was founded in 1955 specifically to conduct the annual National Merit Scholarship Program. The majority of scholarships offered each year are underwritten by approximately 440 independent corporate and college sponsors that share NMSC’s goals of honoring scholastically talented youth and encouraging academic excellence at all levels of education.