Taylor Schmidt, a recent graduate of Fuquay-Varina High School, has been named a recipient of the Progress Energy Merit Award Scholarship. Progress Energy awards the scholarships annually to qualifying college-bound children of company employees.

Criteria used to select recipients include academic record, leadership abilities, potential to succeed, work experience and participation in school and community activities. The awards are worth $1,500 per year and are renewable annually for up to four years based on the recipient’s performance.

Taylor Schmidt is the daughter of Barry and Linda Schmidt. Taylor plans to attend the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and pursue a degree in Nursing.

Progress Energy (NYSE: PGN), headquartered in Raleigh, N.C., is a Fortune 500 energy company with more than 22,000 megawatts of generation capacity and $9 billion in annual revenues. Progress Energy includes two major electric utilities that serve approximately 3.1 million customers in the Carolinas and Florida. The company has earned the Edison Electric Institute's Edison Award, the industry's highest honor, in recognition of its operational excellence, and was the first utility to receive the prestigious J.D. Power and Associates Founder's Award for customer service. The company is pursuing a balanced strategy for a secure energy future, which includes aggressive energy-efficiency programs, investments in renewable energy technologies and a state-of-the-art electricity system. Progress Energy celebrated a century of service in 2008. Visit the company’s Web site at www.progress-energy.com.