Eleven Pearland ISD students competing for National Merit scholarships

The National Merit Scholarship Corporation announced the names of more than 16,000 Semifinalists in the 71st annual National Merit Scholarship Program. Among the honorees are 11 students from Pearland Independent School District.

These semifinalists include Pearland High School’s Sarah Muhammad and Catherine Prowell, from Turner College and Career High School, Jeremy Kass and Dawson High School’s Tanishta Anbu, Andrew Boster, Nuhan Hasan, Stephanie Nash, Jerry Tong, Roy Wang, Amy Zhang and Ares Zhou.

These academically talented high school seniors have an opportunity to continue in the competition for some 6,930 National Merit Scholarships worth nearly $26 million that will be offered next spring. 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. NMSC, a not-for-profit organization that operates without government assistance, was established in 1955 specifically to conduct the annual National Merit Scholarship Program. Scholarships are underwritten by NMSC with its own funds and by about 300 business organizations, higher education institutions, and individual donors that share NMSC’s goals of honoring the nation’s scholastic champions and encouraging the pursuit of academic excellence.

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 $2500 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. 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.

2026 National Merit Scholarship winners will be announced in April. These scholarship recipients will join approximately 389,000 other distinguished young people who have earned the Merit Scholar title.