Gorham High School senior Thomas Matthews, the son of Mary Schultz and Peter Matthews, was recently announced as a National Merit Scholar.

Finalists were originally chosen to partake in the selection process based on PSAT scores from their junior year, and then had to complete a rigorous application process if they chose to do so. The entire process took nearly 18 months to complete. The application required documentation of activities, transcripts, other test scores, and an essay to provide a holistic overview of the students competing for the awards.

Matthews has been active in the school community, spending his extracurricular time participating in math team, varsity tennis, Model UN, and tutoring younger students in Latin. Throughout high school he has pursued an advanced course of study in math, taking upper level calculus courses at USM for the past two years. Next year, he will attend Lafayette University where he plans to continue his study of mathematics. He hopes to attend graduate school after college.

Matthews was excited to be honored as a Merit Scholar. “I was very grateful, of course, but I was also incredibly surprised,” said Matthews. “From the odds alone I never thought I would be selected. Once the surprise wore off, it was an interesting reflection on high school. I’ve always done things because I wished to do them, and because I’ve honestly thought they were fun. It was interesting to use this as an outside perspective on how much I’ve learned and how much has happened in high school.”

For his hard work and academic achievement, Matthews will receive a $2,500 scholarship. He is one of only 2,500 scholars nationwide and only 13 in Maine.