Local National Merit scholars named

The National Merit Scholarship Corporation recently announced the winners of its annual scholarships. More than 2,200 winners nationwide were announced, with another group of scholars to be released in July to bring the total of scholarship recipients for 2007 up to about 4,600.

These awards provide between $500 and $2,000 annually for up to four years of undergraduate study at the institution financing the scholarship.

More than 1.4 million juniors in more than 21,000 high schools entered this year's competition when they took the 2005 Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test, which served as an initial screen of program entrants. Last fall, some 16,000 semifinalists were named in numbers proportional to each state's percentage of high school graduating seniors. About 15,000 of these students met requirements for finalist standing.

Following are the local National Merit Scholarship winners, hometown, the university they plan to attend and probable career field.

Alexander R. Shams, Agoura Hills, USC, international relations.

Judy L. Chen, Camarillo, USC, medicine.

Steven D. Tran, Simi Valley, Texas A&M University, computer engineering.

David A. Gulbransen, Thousand Oaks, Brigham Young University, electrical/bioengineering.

Jason S. Loose, Thousand Oaks, Arizona State University, foreign service.