Seventeen Fairfax County Public Schools (FCPS) students have been awarded 2019 corporate-sponsored scholarships from the National Merit Scholarship Corporation.

The students are part of a group of more than 1,000 National Merit finalists chosen to receive scholarships financed by corporations, company foundations and business organizations.

One local winner of the corporate-sponsored scholarships, with her probable career field in parentheses, is Grace Grossman of Marshall High School (medicine), National Merit Senator Charles S. Robb Scholarship.

Corporate sponsors provide merit scholarship awards for National Merit finalists who are children of their employees, who are residents of communities the companies serve, or who have college majors or career interests the sponsors want to encourage.

Corporate-sponsored merit scholarship awards are renewable for up to four years of college undergraduate study and range from $500 to $10,000 per year.

Others provide a single payment between $2,500 and $5,000. Recipients can use the awards at regionally accredited U.S. colleges or universities of their choice.