A pair of Fayette high school students have been named as winners of a corporate-sponsored National Merit Scholarship.

Thomas Hoang of Whitewater High won a National Merit Walgreen Co. Scholarship. Walgreens is the nation’s largest drugstore chain. Hoang plans to study aerospace engineering.

Harison Rudnick of McIntosh won a National Merit Novartis Scholarship. The Novartis Group companies are leading manufacturers of pharmaceuticals and healthcare products. Rudnick plans to study political science.

Approximately 840 distinguished high school seniors have won corporate-sponsored National Merit Scholarship awards financed by about 107 corporations, company foundations, and other business organizations.

Scholars were selected from students who advanced to the Finalist level in the National Merit Scholarship competition and met criteria of their scholarship sponsors.

Corporate sponsors provide National Merit Scholarships for Finalists who are children of their employees, who are residents of communities the company serves, or who plan to pursue college majors or careers the sponsor wishes to encourage.

Funding for these National Merit Scholarships is provided by corporate organizations that represent nearly all sectors of American industry. Sponsors from the business community have underwritten awards offered in all 68 competitions, expending or committing more than $858 million to support the intellectual development of the nation’s scholastically talented youth