Braden River High senior competes for scholarship

One East County high school senior is aiming for a national reward to help her pay for college.

Hannah Figueras, a Braden River High student, landed a semifinalist position to compete for the 2016 National Merit Scholarship. She is among four Manatee County seniors competing for the more than 7,400 scholarships that total nearly $34 million.

Other semifinalists include three Manatee High students — Christopher Korda, Chris Lehman and Corbin Wood.

Moving forward, 15,000 students will advance to the finalist level, and will be notified in February of their progression.

Each finalist competes for one of 2,500 $2,500 scholarships, along with other scholarships offered. Colleges and universities will also finance more than 3,900 scholarships for students who will attend that institution.

Winners will be announced April through July 2016.

More than 1.5 million high school students from 22,000 high schools entered the competition for the National Merit Scholarship, a school district press release said.

Students who scored the highest on the 2014 Preliminary SAT or National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test qualified for the scholarships.

Contact Amanda Sebastiano at [email protected].