Jones awarded National Achievement Scholarship

EVANSTON, Ill. ? Fairfield High School Class of 2011 graduate Edna Jones has won a National Achievement Scholarship sponsored by Black Contractors United.

Jones, daughter of Bo Luo and Frazer Jones, plans to attend Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology and major in civil engineering.

Black Contractors United was formed in 1979 by firms in the Chicago area that were seeking to increase the participation of blacks in the construction industry. Its members include developers, contractors, suppliers and management affiliates. This scholarship is part of BCU?s mission of increasing the technical and management skills of black Americans to meet the needs of the building profession.

The National Achievement Scholarship Program, conducted by National Merit Scholarship Corporation, is a privately financed academic competition established in 1964 specifically to honor scholastically talented black American youth and to provide scholarships to a substantial number of the most outstanding participants in each annual competition.

Some 800 National Achievement Scholarships, worth more than $2 million, have been offered this year to outstanding high school seniors for college undergraduate study. Award recipients are the National Achievement Program finalists judged to have the strongest record of accomplishments and greatest potential for academic success in college.

More than 160,000 students entered the 2011 National Achievement Scholarship Program by requesting consideration when they took the 2009 Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test as high school juniors. Some 1,300 semifinalists advanced to the finalist level, and all 800 scholarship winners were selected from the group of finalists.