Andra Harris Wins National Merit Scholarship

Courtsey of George County Times
By Royce Armstrong
Andra Harris, a George County High School senior, will be attending Mississippi State University this fall with the help of a $10,000 scholarship from the National Merit Scholarship program and Northrop Grumman.
“Knowing Andra, I was not surprised that she was one of the winners,” Misty Harris, Andra’s mother, said. “She has been a good student all of her life. She brought home a copy of her transcript the other night and she has not received a grade lower than an A on her report card since she was in the eighth grade.”
Harris is one of 1,000 high school seniors nationwide to be selected for scholarships funded by 300 companies, foundations and other business organizations, according to the National Merit Scholarship Corporation website. Harris was selected from more than 1.4 million students representing 21,000 high schools.
“She is the epitome of a superior student,” Gayle Gunter, Andra’s high school counselor, said. “She is quiet and unassuming. She is well-liked by both her peers and her teachers. I was not one bit surprised that she won the National Merit Scholarship. I would have been surprised if she had not won it. It is not every year that we have a student that qualifies for this honor, and when we do we are very excited about it.”
Taking the PSAT test during her junior year, Andra scored high enough to be named a National Merit Scholarship semi-finalist, her mother said. MSU offers tuition-free education to National Merit semi-finalists. On-campus housing and meals are provided for National Merit Finalists.
“The Northrop Grumman scholarship money is on top of that,” Misty Harris said. “We told her that since she had taken care of all of that, we would go ahead and buy a car for her.”
Sponsoring companies offer stipends ranging from $500 to $10,000. Northrop Grumman Corporation is sponsoring two Mississippi students, Harris and one other; through its Pascagoula ship building facility.
Andra plans to major in meteorology, according to her mother. “The meteorology department at MSU is ranked second only to M.I.T. I think she is the type of person who would like to be a storm chaser and researcher.”
Harris and her husband, Ben, who are both alumni of MSU, said the scholarship money will take a great deal of financial pressure off of them.
“Andra is the oldest of our three daughters,” Misty Harris said. “This really frees us up to concentrate on saving to pay the college expenses for the other two. Also, this sets an example for sisters.”