Bainbridge High School graduate Maxwell Brown has been awarded a college-sponsored National Merit Scholarship through Whitman College.

To become a finalist, each semifinalist had to complete a detailed scholarship application, which included writing an essay, describing leadership positions and contributions in school and community activities, showing an outstanding academic record and being endorsed and recommended by a high school official.

Officials from each sponsor college selected their scholarship winners from among the finalists of the National Merit Scholarship Program who will attend their institution.

College-sponsored awards provide between $500 and $2,000 annually for up to four years of undergraduate study at the institution financing the scholarship.

Whitman is an independent, coeducational, nonsectarian liberal arts college of 1,100 students, located in Walla Walla. Founded in 1859, Whitman has upheld the values of the best liberal arts colleges of the nation and has built upon them in the atmosphere of the energy and openness of the Pacific Northwest.

Brown said his intended career field will be computer science.