Falls Church Senior Earns National Merit Scholarship

It was a secret she kept away from her friends at George Mason High School until the announcement last week. Her family knew, but senior Mollie Read didn’t want to say anything because she didn’t know if the other four finalists for the National Merit Scholarship had also won.

The cat was let out of the bag that the 17-year-old Read had won one of the scholarships.

“I was really excited because not many people actually win the scholarship,” Read said Monday inside a counselors office at Mason High.

Mason had five finalists for the award including Read. More than 1.5 million people across the country competed for more than $36 million in scholarships. The scholarships are based on SAT scores, grade point averages and other considerations. Read also won the Raudenbush Scholar Prize for Spanish Language Learning earlier this year.

Read was sitting in class when the announcement came out over the school’s intercom system last week, she said. She was asked to come to the office for a picture and to receive a certificate for her accomplishment.

“It was a little embarrassing, I had to leave class right in the middle of it,” said Read, an A student and president of the Young Democrats and the MGHS Environmental Club.

An opportunity to have a say in what happens at the school is what prompted Read to take her talents to Grinnell College in Iowa. She said she likes that the students have a say in decisions at Grinnell.

“It came down to University of Virginia, William and Mary and Grinnell,” Read said. “Grinnell has a self-governance and that was attractive to me.”