The National Merit Scholarship Program announced the semifinalists for its 2026 list of recipients on Wednesday, which included 70 students from from Argyle ISD, Denton ISD, Lewisville ISD and Northwest ISD.
To be considered for a Merit Scholarship award, semifinalists must fulfill several requirements to advance to the finalist level of the competition.
About 95 percent of the semifinalists are expected to attain finalist standing and approximately half of the finalists will win a National Merit Scholarship, earning the Merit Scholar title.
Argyle
- Liyah A. Cha
- Rylee M. Pizana
- Sri Abhinav Thatavarthi
Denton ISD
From Denton High School:
- Anderson J. Traschel
From Guyer High School:
- Maximus X. Huang
- Zimin S. Kwon
- Cody S. Rosengren
Lewisville ISD
From Flower Mound High School:
- Mahesh Chintalapati
- Vihaan R. Daggula
- Hannah D. Deitrick
- Jeffrey B. Du
- Sanjana R. Gokul
- Sanjith R. Gummakonda
- Amy J. Johnson
- Noah M. Kang
- Sujal Karegowdra
- Sohan Kathari
- Daniil A. Kim
- Anish Koduri
- Hope Y. Robinson
- Vyom Sharma
- Aniruddh Subramanian
- Niket Surabhi
- Daniel E. Trujillo-Romero
- Arjun Viswanathan
- Siddharth Vyakaranam
- Keaton J. Wood
From Hebron High School:
- Anjali P. Abraham
- Harishankar Anoop
- Blake A. Bragalone
- Edwin H. Chung
- Callie J. Clay
- Everson K. Enderlin
- Ryan Kang
- Tejasvi R. Kummetha
- Henry X. Liu
- Yudhister Mallapuraju
- Sophia A. Mathew
- Zoe T. Nguyen
- Isabella Y. Park
- Tej P. Patel
- Ethan S. Shea
- Trisha Shiwakoti
- Shasa Shrestha
- Sejal S. Thakur
From Lewisville High School:
- Aiden J. Garrett
- Benedict C. Bustamante (homeschool/online school)
From Marcus High School:
- Naina Athota
- Kathryn A. Bailey
- Veda S. Ganesan
- Meghan M. George
- Venkatesan R. Giridhar
- Paola N. Jones
- Zain R. Keshwani
- Vancer A. Lian
- Jack B. Lynch
- Lara Makkapati
- Nadia N. Oh
- Juliet E. Padilla
- Siddharth Prem
- Ethan A. Roberson
- Sarah M. Sanchez
- Xavier E. Schwartz
- Viraaj Seth
Northwest ISD:
From Byron Nelson High School:
- Barrett M. Fickle
- Kexin Lu
- Lakshya Meiyappan
From V.R. Eaton High School:
- Derek A. Eisenhour
From Northwest High School:
- Dawson H. Barthelemy
From James M. Steele High School:
- Harper R. Campbell
From over 16,000 Semifinalists, more than 15,000 are expected to advance to the Finalist level, and in February they will be notified of this designation. All National Merit Scholarship winners will be selected from this group of Finalists. Merit Scholar designees are selected on the basis of their skills, accomplishments, and potential for success in rigorous college studies, without regard to gender, race, ethnic origin, or religious preference.
Three types of National Merit Scholarships will be offered in the spring of 2026. Every Finalist will compete for one of 2,500 National Merit $2,500 Scholarships that will be awarded on a state-representational basis.
About 830 corporate-sponsored Merit Scholarship awards will be provided by approximately 150 corporations and business organizations for Finalists who meet their specified criteria, such as children of the grantor’s employees or residents of communities where sponsor plants or offices are located.
In addition, about 150 colleges and universities are expected to finance some 3,600 college-sponsored Merit Scholarship awards for Finalists who will attend the sponsor institution.
National Merit Scholarship winners of 2026 will be announced in four nationwide news releases beginning in April and concluding in July.
According to the National Merit Scholarship Corporation, “the program does not measure the quality or effectiveness of education within a school, system or state.”
For more information about the competition, visit www.nationalmerit.org.
