Four Blair Students Named National Merit Scholars

Students from Montgomery County Public Schools represented more than half of Maryland high school graduates being awarded National Merit Scholarships. Tweny-one out of 39 were from Montgomery County and four of those came from Montgomery Blair High School.

The following Blair students were recipients, followed by where they plan to attend college and their intended majors:

• Alla Avakova, Northeastern University, neuroscience.
• Shiv R. Kaul, University of Maryland, electrical engineering.
• Andrew Weixin Lu, Boston University, engineering.
• Mengdhi Shi, Rice University, economics.

Each sponsoring college or university selected scholarship winners from among finalists in the 2012 National Merit Scholarship Program, according to an MCPS news release. The awards provide between $500 and $2,000 annually for up to four years of undergraduate study at the institution financing the scholarship.