MADISON- The National Merit Scholarship Program was created to identify and honor scholastically talented American youth and to encourage each of them to develop their abilities to the fullest. One such remarkable student who easily fits into the qualifications for the Merit Scholarship is Constance Wang of Bob Jones High.

Wang, a multi-event swimmer for the Bob Jones swim team, heads into her last half of her senior year with a 5.34 grade point average, which ranks her third in her senior class. She is looking to enter college next year at the University of Alabama where she wants to earn a degree in engineering.

“I attribute much of my academic success to the fact I read a lot of books growing up and continue to do that even today,” said Wang. “I feel like I’m self-motivated including in the pool.”

As one of five senior girls on the Lady Patriots swim team, Wang strokes her way through the waters in both the 50 and 100 freestyle events and joins the relay teams in the 200 IM and 200 freestyle races. At last year’s AHSAA State Meet, Wang was a member of both relay teams which won medals. The 200 freestyle squad took first place in the state while the 200 IM was runner-up. As for her individual events, Wang has a personal best time of 24.71-seconds in the 50 and 56.01 in the 100.

The daughter of Tom and Ann Wang and sister to Caroline Wang, the 5-foot-6, 17-year old Wang participated in a wide variety of sports early in her life and began competitive swimming while in the third grade swimming for the Madison Dolphins and later with the Madison Swim Association recreational swim teams. This was after taking several swim lessons at the direction of her parents. Wang added, “I was taking swim lessons and I seemed to be good at swimming, so I soon took to competitive swimming with the Dolphins.”

The year-round workouts quickly caused a “burnout” of sorts as Wang took a break from the sport from fifth to seventh grades. By the time she reached the eighth grade at Discovery Middle School she decided to rejoin her laps in the pool and casually decided to tryout for the Bob Jones swim team. “I did so and here I am,” said Wang, with a laugh.

Wang has other talents she has showcased at certain times of her life. She’s a member of the Bob Jones chess team and was at one time a member of the Huntsville Youth Orchestra where she played the violin. She began violin lessons in the first grade. She volunteers with the Chess Club, acts as a volunteer coach for the Madison Dolphins and assists with the Coding Academy.

Every sophomore is required to take the nationwide “PSAT” test, which is similar to the SAT. As a junior, Wang took the test for the Merit requirements where she scored a 226 out of a 228 perfect score. The score cutoff in Alabama is 212, so she easily qualified for the next level of Merit consideration. As a finalist she will be required to fill out a Merit application to be submitted for review. As for another system to gage intelligence, Wang scored a 35 on her ACT with 36 being a perfect score.

“I studied for the PSAT, and I did well and hope to earn a scholarship of $2,500 in the Merit Program,” said Wang. “I’ll also be applying for additional scholarship money along the way.”

In the meantime, the stellar student will help the Lady Patriots in the end of the 2022 season with hopefully another trip to the State Meet.