The following is a press release from SOMSD:
MAPLEWOOD, N.J. – Columbia High School (CHS) senior Ajuni Zubieta has received notification that she is a finalist for the National Merit Scholarship.
After receiving the official certificate from the National Merit Scholarship Corporation (NMSC) in the CHS Counseling Center, Zubieta said she was very happy about the news. Her mother, Kamaljit Kaur, and father, Ricardo Zubieta, were just as happy.
“We are very proud of Ajuni for her academic achievements and for the positive vibrations she puts out into the world,” said Kaur in an emailed message.
Ajuni Zubieta received notification that she is a finalist for the National Merit Scholarship.
In October, Zubieta was the only CHS student who was named a semifinalist for the National Merit Scholarship out of more than 50 students at the high school who were notified that they had earned distinction from the National Merit Scholarship Corporation and The College Board’s National Recognition Program through high scores on the Preliminary Scholastic Aptitude Test/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test, or PSAT/NMSQT.
Now, Zubieta is one of more than 15,000 finalists throughout the nation who are in the running for 7,140 scholarships, according to the NMSC. The NSMC will begin notifying scholarship recipients in late March.
The scholarship’s monetary value is $2,500. However, it has been reported that National Merit Scholarship finalists and semifinalists can benefit from reduced tuition at some colleges and universities.
Zubieta said that she has not yet committed to a college or university, and expects to get responses from the colleges she has applied to in March and April. Zubieta, who is editor-in-chief of the high school’s award-winning Guildscript literary and arts magazine, is considering majoring in comparative literature or linguistics.
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