Incline High student among 21 WCSD students named as semifinalists in 2026 National Merit Scholarship Program

by | Sep 17, 2025 | Uncategorized

INCLINE VILLAGE, Nev. – Twenty-one high school students in the Washoe County School District (WCSD) have been named semifinalists in the 2026 National Merit Scholarship Program, including Incline High Student Chloe Greer. They are among more than 16,000 scholars nationwide who will compete for nearly $26 million in college scholarships to be awarded next spring.

The semifinalists from the Washoe County School District are:

  • Bringhurst, Eli – Damonte Ranch High School
  • Denton, Millie – Galena High School
  • Gowin, Griffin – Galena High School
  • Greer, Chloe – Incline High School
  • Hill, Lee – Reno High School
  • Ho, Olivia – Galena High School
  • Jackson, Daniel – Procter R. Hug High School
  • Lewis, Ronan – Reno High School
  • Mandeville, Ethan – Wooster High School
  • Moran, Konrad – Galena High School
  • Olson, Lydia – Wooster High School,
  • Peterson, Simon – McQueen High School
  • Prioreschi, Owen – Reno High School
  • Rajesh, Rithik – Galena High School
  • Ram, Mahika – Reno High School
  • Song, Claire – Reno High School
  • Telliano, Matthew – McQueen High School
  • Terrazas, Michael – Reed High School
  • Troescher, Andrew – Procter R. Hug High School
  • Turner, Kaitlyn – Galena High School
  • Vaidyanathan, Ashwin – Academy of Arts, Careers & Technology (AACT)

These students are among more than 1.3 million students in about 20,000 high schools nationwide who entered the 2026 National Merit Scholarship Program by taking the Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test, which served as an initial screening of program entrants. A nationwide pool of semifinalists—representing less than one percent of high school seniors in the United States—includes the highest-scoring entrants in each state.

To become a finalist and move forward in the scholarship competition, semifinalists must submit a detailed scholarship application with information about the semifinalist’s academic record, participation in school and community activities, demonstrated leadership abilities, employment, and honors and awards received. Each semifinalist must have an outstanding academic record throughout high school, be endorsed and recommended by a high school official, write an essay, and earn SAT or ACT scores that confirm the student’s earlier performance on the qualifying test.

Based upon these submissions, the National Merit Scholarship Corporation will choose approximately 15,000 finalists who will be notified of their selection in February 2026. These finalists will compete for one of 2,500 National Merit Scholarships ($2,500), about 830 corporate-sponsored Merit Scholarships, and some 3,600 college-sponsored Merit Scholarships for finalists who will attend the sponsor institution.