The National Merit Scholarship Corporation awarded senior Cameron Deal of Sunrise Mountain High School, 21200 N. 83rd Ave., Peoria, as a National Merit Scholar. The National Merit Scholarship winners are the finalists in each state judged to have the strongest combination of accomplishments, skills, and potential for success in rigorous college studies.

More than 1.5 million juniors in nearly 21,000 high schools entered the 2020 National Merit Program by taking the 2018 Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test. This test served as an initial screen of program entrants. The nationwide pool of semifinalists, which represents less than 1 percent of U.S. high school seniors, includes the highest-scoring entrants in each state.

Cameron has served as president of Sunrise Mountain’s DECA Club since 2018, where he has attended the International Career Development Conference and helped the Mustangs achieve first-place honors in back-to-back state competitions. He also recently received two Peoria Education Foundation scholarships, The Joseph McCord Memorial Scholarship, a scholarship for college-bound students who have a passion for history and social studies, and the Community Service Scholarship, a scholarship given to students who have completed a minimum of 100 community service hours throughout their high school career.

Cameron plans to study economics in college, which he will attend in fall.