Fort Bend ISD (April 23, 2025) – Four Fort Bend ISD students were announced as corporate-sponsored National Merit scholarships winners by the National 
Merit Scholarship Corporation (NMSC®) today.

Winners include:

• Owen J. Chen, Clements High School, Probable career field: Computer Science
• Preston C. Keen, Elkins High School, Probable career field: Biochemistry
• Rudransh B. Pathak, Clements High School, Probable career field: Computer Science
• Gabriel L. Xiong, Clements High School, Probable career field: Computer Science

Funding for these National Merit Scholarships is provided by corporate organizations that represent nearly all sectors of American industry.
Chen’s scholarship is funded by Aspen Technology, Inc. and Keen’s by Air Liquide America. Fluor and Chevron provided scholarship funds for Pathak and 
Xiong, respectively.
 
Amounts of the awards are not disclosed but can range from $1,000 to $10,000 with most awards set to renew for up to four years of college. 

This is the first announcement of the 2025 National Merit Scholars by the National Merit Scholarship Corporation.The second announcement of scholarship 
winners is expected on May 7, 2025, the third announcement will come out June 4 and the final group of winners will be announced July 14. 
About the 2025 National Merit Scholarship Competition

High school juniors entered the 2025 National Merit Scholarship Program when they took the 2023 Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying 
Test (PSAT/NMSQT®). This served as the initial screening.
 
In September 2023, more than 16,000 semifinalists who were identified as the highest scorers were designated from across the nation. They make up less 
than one percent of all senior high school students in the country.

To become a National Merit Scholarship winner, semifinalists had to complete a detailed application, which included writing an essay, plus providing
 information about their extracurricular activities, awards, and leadership positions. Semifinalists also had to be recommended by a high school official 
and earn SAT® or ACT® scores that confirmed their high performance on the qualifying test. www.nationalmerit.org

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