Center Grove school officials wanted more of their students to participate in a national scholarship program, and help them earn money for college.
So, when they found that some of the students who had high enough scores to move forward in the National Merit Scholarship Program were not taking advantage of the opportunity, they wanted to encourage them to try.
This year, Center Grove began piloting a program that walks students through the steps to place and possibly earn scholarships in the National Merit Scholarship Program.
About 20 students are involved in the Trojan Contenders Program. The program identifies students who scored well enough or within certain percentage points on the Pre-SAT to move on in the prestigious scholarship program and walks them through the steps in the program, Center Grove High School principal Jeff Henderson said.
“This is one of the things we wanted to do to increase knowledge (of the program),” he said.
Center Grove has lagged behind similarly-sized schools in the amount of semi-finalists that have been named in the program, Henderson said.
For example, this year, Center Grove has the same number of finalists as Whiteland Community High School, which has about 600 fewer students. Some other larger schools in Indiana, such as Carmel High School, regularly have 45 or more semi-finalists move forward in the program.
Students who had qualifying scores on the PSATs were invited to a lunch where administrators and counselors talked about the National Merit Scholarship program and how the program could help them pay for college, Henderson said. National Merit Scholarship winners each get a $2,500 scholarship. However, colleges, businesses and corporations often offer students more money, including full scholarships, for a strong showing in the program, high school administrators said.
Guidance counselors will then follow up with the students and help walk them through the steps of the program and remind them of deadlines, Henderson said.
The idea is for students and their parents to learn about the program and how it could help pay for college, Henderson said.
The No. 1 goal of the program is to give students another avenue to help pay for college. In the next few years, the number of students in the program should rise, Henderson said.
“Ultimately, the number of Merit Scholars increases over time,” he said.
