UCS senior earns national merit corporate scholarship

UTICA/STERLING HEIGHTS/SHELBY TOWNSHIP — Michael Oommen, a senior at the Gene L. Klida Utica Academy for International Studies, is among 700 students nationally and 17 statewide to earn a scholarship in the first round of the National Merit Scholarship program.

Oommen specifically earned the corporate-sponsored General Dynamics Corp. Scholarship, which is estimated at $2,500 in value.

“So, my biggest support throughout all of this has really been my parents, and they were just super proud of me because... they’ve always just been pushing me to be the best version of myself,” Oommen said.

Over 100 corporations, company foundations and other business organizations provide scholarships to students who were named national merit finalists. Students initially qualify for the merit program by being among the top 1% of students in the country taking the Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test.

“So, the scholarship program stems out of the PSAT and MSQT that we take in the fall of 11th grade, and so really throughout the summer I was taking SAT prep courses and my teachers have always been trying to remind us that, ‘Hey, this test is coming up and, you know, if you do really well... there’s an opportunity to get a scholarship,’” Oommen said. “So, just kind of like over a couple months of hard work and preparing for it, we end up taking the test, and then I ended up doing good enough to qualify for semifinalist standing, and then from there, we just kept moving forward with the application, and then I was able to get the scholarship.”

Oommen is involved with the ROTC program at his school and is head coach of the Messmore Elementary Science Olympiad Team among other school activities. He plans to attend the University of Michigan to study political science, and he will also be participating in the ROTC program while he is attending school.

“So, I’ll be hopefully graduating and commissioning as an officer in the Army, and then from there, I hope to gain experience in the Army and government, and then one day, transition over to a full-time government job, and then just continue to help out in different ways within our government,” Oommen said.

Oommen has also received an ROTC scholarship, which will be fully funding four years of tuition as he participates in the University of Michigan’s program.

Chris Kuhlman, a Gene L. Klida Utica Academy for International Studies theatre arts teacher, expressed that he was not surprised that Oommen received this accolade, as Oommen has displayed hard work and dedication in many aspects of his life.

“Michael is proof to the idea that hard work and perseverance are necessary components of learning,” Kuhlman said in an email. “As a debater, he has worked tirelessly to perfect his rhetoric and leadership skills. His reflective nature is what affords him such strength in his learning. Michael is always looking to find how he can grow in his understanding and then take this knowledge and apply it to the best of his ability. He is a principled, caring, open-minded student who is a testament to all that is expected of an IB learner, and a National Merit Scholarship recipient.”

For more information, visit uticak12.org.