Putnam City High School senior Daniela Mello de Almeida has won a National Merit $2,500 Scholarship, officials of the National Merit Scholarship Corporation have announced.

Mello de Almeida was chosen from approximately 15,000 finalists in the 2005 National Merit Scholar Program. Students who earned the scholarships were judged to have the strongest combination of accomplishments, skills and potential for success in rigorous college studies.

The selections were made by a committee of college admissions officers and high school counselors. The committee evaluated each National Merit Finalist's academic record, including difficulty level of subjects studied and grades earned; scores from two standardized tests; contributions and leadership in school and community activities; an essay describing interests and goals; and a recommendation written by a high school official.

Thirty-four Oklahoma students, including Mello de Almeida, received the honor. The number of winners named in a state is based on the state's percentage of national total of graduating high school seniors.

The competition for Merit Scholarship awards being offered this spring began in October 2003 when more than 1.3 million juniors in more than 21,000 U.S. high schools took the Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test, which served as an initial screen of program entrants. Last fall, the highest-scoring participants in each state, representing less than one percent of the state's seniors, were named semifinalists on a state representational basis. Only these 16,000 semifinalists had an opportunity to continue in the competition.