Garden School in Jackson Heights announced its full Merit Scholarship winners for 2016: Asia Chen, a fifth-grader from Flushing, and Michael O’Sullivan, a fifth-grader who lives in Sunnyside, according to a press release from the school.
For more than 20 years, Garden School in Jackson Heights has offered full tuition Merit Scholarships to outstanding middle and high school students. Approximately 100 students take an annual exam that consists of sections on math concepts, math computation, vocabulary and reading comprehension, as well as a writing sample. The top scorers are invited to continue in the Merit Scholarship selection process.
From that smaller group, the school chooses around two dozen students to receive tuition discount scholarships. Additionally, just a couple of students receive full scholarships for all their years at Garden School. The scholarships can be worth as much as $120,000 in Garden School tuition fees over a seven-year period.
“The Merit Program allows us to find and support students and families who are engaged in their own education and be successful at Garden School,” says Headmaster Dr. Richard Marotta. “Also, those students that are involved in extracurricular activities bring that enthusiasm to enrich all of us. Michael and Asia and their respective families are true ‘win-win’ situations for us and we are delighted to welcome them to Garden.”
Asia is a student at PS 21 who loves to write and enjoys performing in her chorus group, dance classes, and learning the piano. She is looking forward to the musical theater opportunities at Garden School as well as the chance to study French. Michael is a student at PS 166 who also loves to write, especially science fiction stories. He is looking forward to the small classes and also the use of the swimming pool and playing on the Garden School basketball team.
While enrolled at Garden School, Merit Scholars must maintain a B average, be good citizens of the school and participate in the school’s community service program to ensure that the scholarship continues over the years. Recent winners of the scholarship have gone on to such universities and colleges as Harvard, Dartmouth, NYU, MIT, and Cornell.
The Merit Exam and the scholarships are eligible to both new and current Garden students, who are enrolled in grades 5-10 (entering 6-11 in 2016).
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