Durham, NC - Eight high school seniors have won prestigious Angier B. Duke Memorial Scholarships, which are undergraduate merit awards to attend Duke University.

The awards cover full tuition, room and board and mandatory fees for four years, as well as a six-week summer study program at the University of Oxford in England. Scholars are also offered up to $5,000 for research or other educational enrichment programs. Based on estimated tuition rates, a scholarship will be worth more than $200,000 to a student over a four-year period.

The scholarships are awarded to outstanding students who show promise of being intellectual leaders. The awards stem from the Angier B. Duke Memorial Inc., established in 1925 by university co-founder Benjamin Newton Duke in memory of his son, Angier Buchanan Duke.

The scholarship's alumni include 18 Rhodes Scholars and 13 Marshall Scholars, including the renowned writer/Duke English professor Reynolds Price, who passed away last year; Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist Anne Tyler; NASA project scientist Hal Weaver; and Dr. Lynt Johnson, chief of transplant surgery at Georgetown University Medical Center.

This year's winners are:

-- Thasos Athanasiou Athens of Davis, Calif., a graduate of Davis Senior High School, and son of Kiley and Kyriacos A. Athanasiou.

-- Puja Bansal of Dix Hills, N.Y., a graduate of Half Hollow Hills High School East, and daughter of Archana Somani and Vipul Bansal.

-- James Emery Ferencsik of Savannah, Ga., a graduate of St. Andrews School, and son of Beth Quigley and David Ferencsik.

-- Grace Danting Li of Manvel, Texas, a graduate of Glenda Dawson High School, and daughter of Shixia Huang and Yi Li.

-- Brody Donovan Kellish of Manlius, N.Y., a graduate of Cazenovia High School, and son of Sherry and Mark Kellish.

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Duke Announces Winners of A.B. Duke Scholarships