Two Fayette County High School students are among 700 nationwide receiving National Achievement Scholarships through the 2009 National Achievement Scholarship Program, a competition for African American high school students.

Cecelia O. Oparah and Ehizele M. Osehobo are each the recipients of a $2,500, single payment scholarship, which can be used for undergraduate study at any regionally accredited U.S. college or university. Cecelia is planning to major in business/mass communications; Ehizele is looking at majoring in medicine.

More than 150,000 students entered the 2009 National Achievement Program by requesting consideration when they took the 2007 Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test (PSAT/NMSQT) as high school juniors. In September 2008, approximately 1,600 of the highest scorers were named semifinalists on a regional basis. To continue in the competition, semifinalists had to fulfill requirements for finalist standing, which included having a record of consistently high academic performance, being endorsed and recommended by an official of their high school, earning SAT scores that confirm the PSAT/NMSQT performance and submitting an essay about personal interests, attainments and goals.

Approximately 1,300 semifinalists advanced to the finalist level. Achievement Scholar awardees are the finalist candidates judged to have the strongest record of accomplishments and greatest potential for college academic success.