A Lawrence resident who attends Topeka High School is among 800 black American high school seniors to be recognized as an Achievement Scholar through the National Merit Scholarship Corporation.

Nicholas Henriquez was named as an Achievement Scholar for his record of accomplishments and potential for academic success. Henriquez was given an honorary achievement scholarship, which signifies a student’s educational plans or other awards preclude the student from receiving a monetary scholarship.

The National American Scholarship Program is an academic competition that honors scholastically talented Black American youths and provides scholarships.

More than 16,000 students entered the 2012 National Achievement Scholarship Program by requesting consideration for the competition when they took the 2010 preliminary SAT as high school juniors. The test is also the National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test.

From those juniors, 1,600 of the highest scorers were named as semifinalists. Those semifinalists were then reviewed on their record of high academic performance, recommendation from a high school official, SAT scores that confirmed their PSAT score, and a written essay.

From the semifinalist pool, 1,300 advanced to the finalist level, and from there 800 were selected as National Achievement Scholarship winners.