MORAN — Forgive Emily Boyd if she wants to stop and catch her breath now and then.
She’s earned it.
Boyd, a senior at Marmaton Valley High School, learned last week she was named a National Merit Scholarship finalist, putting her in some elite company across the country.
“This is a big deal academically, and financially,” Marmaton Valley Principal Kim Ensminger said.
Boyd was announced as a semifinalist in September, guaranteeing her $10,000 in scholarships to attend the University of Kansas in the fall.
Being named a finalist doubles that scholarship.
That alone will pay half of Boyd’s tuition at KU — she plans on studying chemistry — and she’s in line for several other scholarships.
“That should just about take care of all of it,” she said.
The National Merit Scholarship program is open to any high school junior enrolled to take the Preliminary Scholastic Aptitude Test (PSAT), which Boyd did last fall.
Boyd’s score ranked her in the top 1 percent of all students taking the test. There are more than 16,000 semifinalists nationwide.
Boyd has maintained a 4.0 grade-point average while participating in band, forensics, the school’s dance team and plays volleyball and softball. She’s also a National Honors Society member.
“This senior year has gone by pretty quickly,” she admitted. “I’m still trying to figure out where January went.”
Boyd credits her parents, Mark and Patti, for instilling her love of reading in particular and education in general.
“They never put any pressure on me to do well at school, but I don’t think you’ll see a surface in our house without an open book or magazine,” she said.
She also notes time management has been key.
“I try to avoid procrastinating,” she said. “But it’s not like I’m totally driven to do only school. I like to have fun, plus it’s getting to the end of my senior year.”
Boyd decided recently to study chemistry at KU.
“It was my favorite subject in high school,” she said. “I want to explore it, and decide where I want to go with it.”
MV senior named scholarship finalist
