National Merit Scholar Winners Announced

Nearly every year for the past 25 years, GPA has had 23 national finalists and 24 commended scholars.
This year it is unusual to have four winners. These students are Bradey Scott, Harrison Young, Drew Moore, and Samuel Prather.
“For these students it represents a lot of hard work,” said Advisor Denise Webb.

Prather and Moore took multiple practice tests to help prepare themselves and Young used Khan Academy to study. Harrison would enter his previous PSAT score and the website would tell him what subjects he needed to work on. Scott did not take any practice tests or take any prep classes, yet still earned the commended award.
“I just showed up with my supplies on the day of the test and hoped for the best,” said Scott .
Scott plans to attend UTA and study engineering. He was surprised to find out that he got accepted into this prestigious program because it took a week for him to find out.
Reactions to earning these awards were mixed.
“I was enthusiastic, but I was also slightly disappointed because I did not score high enough to become a semifinalist,” said Moore.
Moore is considering attending Baylor University, Brown University, University of Missouri Kansas City, and Rice University, since they offer conditional acceptance to medical school. He also is looking at Trinity University.
Samuel also took practice tests and was very excited to find out the news. He knows that the awards will help him gain scholarships from some colleges. He plans to attend the United States Military Academy to major in Law and Legal Studies.
“I was overjoyed because it increased the amount of college opportunities I had,” said Young. “I felt very blessed that I now had the ability to choose where I went to college.”
Harrison is considering OU and UTA for college, so the Merit Scholarship will help him pay a large amount of tuition and other expenses at whichever college he chooses. He wants to major in Computer Science/Engineering.