Recently one Adel-DeSoto-Minburn student joined a group of more than 1,000 students around the country who were awarded corporate-sponsored National Merit Scholarships.

ADM student Logan Cahalan received the National Merit Principal Financial Group Scholarship, awarded to dependents of Principal employees. Cahalan, who plans to study mechanical engineering in college, is one of 18 Iowa students to receive merit scholarships in the first group of this year’s winners. The pool of students started at 1.6 million, then was whittled down to 16,000. By the end of the year, there will be approximately 7,500 finalists around the United States, with scholarships totalling more than $32 million.

This is the 62nd year of the National Merit Scholarship program. Scholarship winners go through a rigorous application process, and meet the criteria of their scholarship sponsors. Finalists are either children or dependents of corporate employees, residents of communities the companies serve, or plan to pursue college majors or careers the sponsor wishes to encourage. The awards range from $500 to $10,000 per year, or a single payment between $2,500 and $5,000.