Kloos to study medicine at University of Chicago

The National Merit Scholarship Corp. released the names of approximately 1,700 additional winners of National Merit Scholarships financed by colleges and universities.

Included on the list is Jacqueline E. Kloos, a 2015 Westerville North High School graduate, who this fall will begin studying medicine at the University of Chicago, where her father also attended.

Her father is a doctor and is now the senior medical director at a cancer-testing company in San Francisco. Her mother is a homemaker.

“I admire the successful career that he has had,” Kloos said. “Through my summer internships, I learned medicine is my biggest passion.”

She spent the summer of 2014 volunteering in a cancer research lab at OSU and in 2013 interning with a genetic counselor, and had an article published in a scientific journal.

“I’ve always wanted to go far in life. I do consider myself a perfectionist but I also genuinely like school and learning in general,” said Kloos.

At North, Kloos participated in volleyball, cross country, the school newspaper and Mock Trial, where she won Outstanding Attorney at the state competition.

In what little free time she had through high school, she worked at DSW and played guitar.

“It’s a lot of time management. I don’t like having free time. I’m much happier when I have a very full schedule, so I just try and schedule everything accordingly,” she said.

She was also honored at the Westerville Kiwanis Club’s 53rd annual Academic Varsity Awards Banquet April 15.

Kloos and other Merit Scholars join more than 2,200 other college-sponsored award recipients who were announced in late May.

Officials of each sponsor college selected their scholarship winners from among the National Merit Scholarship Finalists 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.

This year, 183 colleges and universities are sponsoring about 3,900 Merit Scholarship awards.

Sponsor colleges include 106 private and 77 public institutions located in 44 states and the District of Columbia.