5 more Manatee County students awarded National Merit Scholarships

MANATEE -- Five more Manatee County seniors were awarded National Merit Scholarships on Wednesday as the list of Manatee students receiving them so far this semester goes to six.

Corbin Wood of Manatee High School was announced as a corporate-sponsored National Merit scholarship winner in late April.

In the latest batch of general scholarships winners, students each earned $2,500 toward college costs.

The latest winners:

Chris Lehman of Man

atee High School, who lists his probable career field as engineering.

Hannah Sage of Saint Stephen's Episcopal School, who lists her probable career field as medicine.

Hannah Figueras of Braden River High School, who lists her probable career field as psychology.

Sierra VanSuch of Out-of-Door Academy, who lists her probable career field as engineering.

Joseph Class of Saint Stephen's Episcopal School, who lists his probable career field as linguistics.

This is the second of three announcements from the organization. The college-sponsored National Merit Scholarships are awarded in the summer.

By the end of this year, more than 7,500 students will be awarded approximately $33 million in scholarships.

More than 1.5 million high school students entered the National Merit Scholarship competition when they took the 2014 Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test as juniors. The 16,000 semifinalists announced in fall 2015 represent less than 1 percent of the nation's seniors.

Almost a dozen Manatee County students were named finalists in the fall.

Meghin Delaney, education reporter, can be reached at 941-745-7081. Follow her on Twitter @MeghinDelaney.

This story was originally published May 11, 2016 at 11:03 PM with the headline "5 more Manatee County students awarded National Merit Scholarships ."