Blind Brook senior awarded National Merit Scholarship
June 5, 2024 at 11:21 p.m.
When Fiona Chen was named one of the five Blind Brook High School students who qualified as 2024 National Merit Scholarship semifinalists, she admitted it wasn’t something she had on her radar.
“I remember my mother told me it was a thing and I absolutely forgot about it,” she said in September 2023.
But since then, it’s been on the forefront of her mind—at the behest of those around her.
“My parents consistently reminded me to check on it since then,” she laughed. “Also, my guidance counselor, she was on top of that.”
Chen’s hard work, and the nagging from those already invested, paid off. She was named the district’s sole National Merit Scholar.
The prestigious award is granted by the National Merit Scholarship Corporation (NMSC) every year and starts by recognizing the highest scorers on the Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test (PSAT/NMSQT). The 16,000 semifinalists selected in the fall represented the top scorers in their state.
From there, semifinalists continued the application process by submitting transcripts, letters of recommendation and an essay for a chance to win a scholarship.
For her written component, Chen reflected on her time with one of her favorite extracurriculars at Blind Brook High School.
“I wrote my essay about my experience on the robotics team,” she said. “Learning to navigate a male-dominated activity and carving out my own space where there wasn’t inherently one for me.”
In May, the NMSC narrowed the 16,000 semifinalists down to 6,870 students to receive the title of “Merit Scholar” and funds towards a school of their choosing.
When her mother caught wind that the winners had been announced through a community group, Chen got a text from her to see how she had fared.
“So, I checked it on my way home after school and my reaction was ‘Oh, huh,’ because I wasn’t really expecting to win,” the 17-year-old recalled.
Chen was awarded one of the NMSC corporate-sponsored awards from the Public Service Enterprise Group valued at $2,500.
The soon-to-be graduate has already directed the funds to Amherst College in Massachusetts, where she’s planning to start the next phase of her academic career this fall.
There, she aspires to follow in her mother’s footsteps by studying neuroscience.
But it wasn’t a path she decided on until the latter half of her time in Blind Brook.
“I’m not sure if it was a nature or nurture kind of thing,” Chen said. “I didn’t grow up wanting to go into it, though.”
She entered high school with the intention of one day becoming a lawyer. But she quickly learned it didn’t play to her strengths.
“I realized I don’t like talking that much, so I had to change that plan,” Chen laughed.
She gravitated towards the sciences and elected to study brains as part of the school’s science research program.
“I just think brains are so interesting,” Chen said. “All of our consciousness is stored in a small mass of tissue.”
She joked that thinking about the human brain has kept her up late at night.
“We, essentially, are our brains,” she said. “My brain is what identifies as Fiona.”
Her fascination with the organ has led her to some unique experiences and opportunities through the science research program.
The Brush Hollow Close resident studied emotional distress in mice and has handled some of their brains directly. “I once dropped a brain down a drain,” she said sheepishly. She had been cleaning it in preparation for study when it slipped out of its test tube and fell into the pipe.
Eight months of work went down the drain with the brain. “It was probably one of the worst things that happened to me,” she laughed.
The National Merit Scholarship awarded to Chen is renewable, so long as she maintains a standard of performance—a challenge that she’s looking forward to tackling through Amherst College’s open curriculum.
“It’s really what drew me to that school,” Chen said of the curriculum structure. “A lot of institutions boast that they have one, but they aren’t as flexible as Amherst’s.”
Though she plans on majoring in neuroscience, she’s contemplating picking up music as a second major. It’s familiar ground for the merit scholar, who plays the flute in the school band.
“It’s nice to use both hemispheres of my brain,” she said. “If you do enough calculus, you really want to take a break. Music is a great way to keep myself engaged without continuing to exercise that part of my brain.”
She credits her balanced academic life as the reason she won the NMSC award, with a dash of fortune.
“I like to think I’m a well-rounded student and person,” she laughed. “But I still think I’m lucky that it played out like this.”
Even though it’s been a month since the announcement, Chen still has trouble believing she was awarded the scholarship.
“It’s definitely satisfying, but I really wasn’t expecting this outcome,” she said. “Though, it’s really nice to be recognized for all my hard work.”
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