Benedict J. Willis, part of Paint Branch High's class of 2012, is one of 20 students from Montgomery County Public Schools to be awarded National Merit scholarships in the last round of the competition, MCPS announced. 

This round of scholarships are sponsored by participating colleges and universities. Previous rounds of the competition were sponsored by corporations or by schools. 

In total, 81 students from MCPS were awarded either National Merit or National Achievement awards, the school system said. Both awards acknowledge academic achievement; Achievement awards are specifically for African-American students. 

MCPS students represent more than one-third of all Merit or Achievement scholars in Maryland, MCPS said.

The following students were awarded scholarships this round:

Bethesda-Chevy Chase High School: Catherina L. Leipold, The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, journalism

Montgomery Blair High School: Alla Avakova, Northeastern University, neuroscience; Shiv R. Kaul, University of Maryland, electrical engineering; Andrew Weixin Lu, Boston University, engineering; Mengdhi Shi, Rice University, economics

Winston Churchill High School: Joshua D. Preuss, University of Maryland, mechanical engineering

Walter Johnson High School:  Omar S. Agha, The University of Chicago, economics

Richard Montgomery High School: Elizabeth C.  Axley, University of Maryland, anthropology; Daniel Galitsky, University of Maryland, economics/business; David C. Hamilton, American University, film; Jesse M. Itskowitz, Northwestern University, film; Gabriel J. Lazarus, Vanderbilt University, law; Jiaqi Li, University of Maryland; Lucia Lu, The University of Chicago, publishing; Yumeng Wang, University of Maryland, social science

Paint Branch High School: Benedict J. Wills, University of Maryland, accounting

Poolesville High School: Beidi Luo, University of Maryland, accounting

Walt Whitman High School: Elizabeth N. Bartlett, Vanderbilt University, music

Thomas S. Wootton High School: Alice Jenlin Chang, The University of Chicago, economics; Catherine Ji, University of Southern California, engineering