{"id":3892,"date":"2026-03-31T14:58:41","date_gmt":"2026-03-31T14:58:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/education.delaware.gov\/award-programs\/secretary-of-education-scholars\/2026-delaware-secretary-of-education-scholars\/elizabeth-merkle\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T14:58:41","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T14:58:41","slug":"elizabeth-merkle","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/education.delaware.gov\/award-programs\/secretary-of-education-scholars\/2026-delaware-secretary-of-education-scholars\/elizabeth-merkle\/","title":{"rendered":"Elizabeth Merkle"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"student_container\">\n<div role=\"region\" aria-label=\"Personal information about Elizabeth Merkle\" class=\"grid\">\n\t<div class=\"grid-item grid-item-med grid-item-fixed picture\">\n\t\t<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/education.delaware.gov\/award-programs\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2026\/03\/merkle_elizabeth_h.webp\" width=\"270\" alt=\"Headshot of Elizabeth Merkle\">\n\t<\/div>\n\t<div class=\"grid-item grid-item-med grid-item-fixed nomination\">\n\t\t<h2 class=\"scholar_nomination_statement\">Nomination Statement<\/h2>\n\t\tUsing her father's desire and mother's strong moral compass, Elizabeth Merkle has driven herself to become 2nd in her class. Her determination and hard work have paid off, as exemplified by her National Honor Society membership. Elizabeth's academic strengths can be matched by her extracurricular exploits on the field hockey and lacrosse fields, and in the pool for POLYTECH's swim team. A born leader, Elizabeth can usually be found smiling or giving good advice to classmates. She plans to go to college to major in biochemistry with a minor in Chinese.\n\t<\/div>\t\t<div class=\"grid-item grid-item-med logo\">\n\t\t\t<img decoding=\"async\" width=\"280\" src=\"https:\/\/education.delaware.gov\/award-programs\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2023\/04\/polytech_high_school-1.jpg\" alt=\"Logo of POLYTECH High School\">\n\t\t<\/div>\t\t<div class=\"grid-item grid-item-med personal\">\n\t\t\t&ldquo;My parents have always been my inspiration; they taught me just how far determination and hard work can get someone. I admire their ability to be both intelligent and kind, and I aspire to reflect their teachings. I owe my continuous desire to learn to my father, while my mother is my moral compass; both have taught me the importance of kindness and generosity. I am so lucky to have learned everything I know from the most incredible people.&rdquo;\n\t\t<\/div>\t\t<div class=\"grid-item grid-item-med picture\">\n\t\t\t<img decoding=\"async\" width=\"270\" src=\"https:\/\/education.delaware.gov\/award-programs\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2026\/03\/merkle_elizabeth_1.jpg\" alt=\"\">\n\t\t<\/div>\t\t<div class=\"grid-item grid-item-med picture\">\n\t\t\t<img decoding=\"async\" width=\"270\" src=\"https:\/\/education.delaware.gov\/award-programs\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2026\/03\/merkle_elizabeth_2.jpg\" alt=\"\">\n\t\t<\/div>\t\t<div class=\"grid-item grid-item-med picture\">\n\t\t\t<img decoding=\"async\" width=\"270\" src=\"https:\/\/education.delaware.gov\/award-programs\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2026\/03\/merkle_elizabeth_3.jpg\" alt=\"\">\n\t\t<\/div><\/div>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I am so lucky to have learned everything I know from the most incredible people<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3624,"parent":3664,"menu_order":54,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"protect_children":false,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-3892","page","type-page","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"acf":{"school":"POLYTECH High School","school_logo":2001,"student_images":[3889,3890,3891],"nomination_statement":"Using her father's desire and mother's strong moral compass, Elizabeth Merkle has driven herself to become 2nd in her class. Her determination and hard work have paid off, as exemplified by her National Honor Society membership. Elizabeth's academic strengths can be matched by her extracurricular exploits on the field hockey and lacrosse fields, and in the pool for POLYTECH's swim team. A born leader, Elizabeth can usually be found smiling or giving good advice to classmates. She plans to go to college to major in biochemistry with a minor in Chinese.","personal_statement":"My parents have always been my inspiration; they taught me just how far determination and hard work can get someone. I admire their ability to be both intelligent and kind, and I aspire to reflect their teachings. I owe my continuous desire to learn to my father, while my mother is my moral compass; both have taught me the importance of kindness and generosity. I am so lucky to have learned everything I know from the most incredible people.","add_quotes":true},"checksum":["207c5f4317acab49cf5e24db4cd5d5d0a6fa3770"],"sw_mod_date":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/education.delaware.gov\/award-programs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/3892","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/education.delaware.gov\/award-programs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/education.delaware.gov\/award-programs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/education.delaware.gov\/award-programs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/education.delaware.gov\/award-programs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3892"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/education.delaware.gov\/award-programs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/3892\/revisions"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/education.delaware.gov\/award-programs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/3664"}],"acf:attachment":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/education.delaware.gov\/award-programs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3891"},{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/education.delaware.gov\/award-programs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3890"},{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/education.delaware.gov\/award-programs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3889"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/education.delaware.gov\/award-programs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3624"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/education.delaware.gov\/award-programs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3892"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}