2026 National Merit Scholarship Program Winners

The Bellevue School District is proud to announce our 2026 National Merit Scholarship Program Corporate-Sponsored Merit Scholarship winners! This year’s recipients included 3 students from Interlake and Newport high schools! Congratulations, BSD scholars!

The National Merit Scholarship Program is an annual academic competition among high school students for recognition and college scholarships that began in 1955. The program is conducted by National Merit Scholarship Corporation (NMSC®), a not-for-profit organization that operates without government assistance. United States high school students enter the National Merit Scholarship Program by taking the Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test (PSAT/NMSQT®), which serves as an initial screen of over 1.3 million entrants each year, and by meeting published program entry and participation requirements. 

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Corporate-Sponsored Merit Scholarship Winners 

Approximately 700 distinguished high school seniors have won corporate-sponsored National Merit Scholarship awards financed by about 115 corporations, company foundations, and other business organizations. Also included in this category are awards supported by several foundations and individual donors who have established endowments with NMSC. 

Scholars were selected from students who advanced to the Finalist level in the National Merit Scholarship competition and met criteria of their scholarship sponsors. Corporate sponsors provide National Merit Scholarships for Finalists who are children of their employees, who are residents of communities the company serves, or who plan to pursue college majors or careers the sponsor wishes to encourage. 

Most of these awards are renewable for up to four years of college undergraduate study and provide annual stipends that range from $1,000 to $10,000 per year. Some provide a single payment between $2,500 and $10,000. Recipients can use their awards at any regionally accredited U.S. college or university of their choice. 

Interlake High School 

• Nguyen, Daniel – Boeing Scholarship 
• Vikramaditya, Nishant – NVIDIA Corporation Scholarship 

Newport High School 

• Ryu, Brandon – Walgreen Co. Scholarship 

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2026 National Merit Scholarship Finalists

This year’s finalists include 71 students from Bellevue, Interlake, International, Newport and Sammamish high schools.

In February, National Merit Scholarship Semifinalists who met academic and other requirements were notified that they advanced to Finalist standing and received Certificates of Merit attesting to their recognition in the program. All National Merit Scholarship winners (Merit Scholar® awardees) will be chosen from this group of Finalists based on their abilities, skills and accomplishments. 

Congratulations to the BSD students who have advanced to this next phase in the competition and will be eligible for a variety of scholarships! 

Bellevue High School

• Chae, Joe 
• Gu, Jiadong 
• Hong, Audrey 
• Lee, Jachin 
• Liu, Silver 
• Scorsatto Botelho, Filipe Owen 
• Sun, Mingmei 
• Vegulla, Aarush 
• Wang, Ruibin 
• Wang, Xixi 
• Zhu, Bryan 

Interlake High School

• Acharya, Piyush 
• Aggarwal, Devesh 
• Agrawal, Aishwarya 
• Balayoghan, Leya 
• Bie, Stella 
• Chen, Blythe 
• Chen, Justin 
• Deng, Kevin 
• Fu-Zhou, Victor Jiaxuan 
• Gong, Xiyuan(Carol) 
• Harsha, Suchetha 
• Hinge, Adishree Anand 
• Hong, Annie 
• Jain, Khushi 
• Kashyap, Arya 
• Kienzle, Hannes 
• Koganti, Arnav 
• Krishnakumar, Devaj 
• Kushner, Adina 
• Lee, Emily 
• Louie, Madeleine 
• Nayak, Mohan 
• Nguyen, Daniel 
• Oliveira, Max 
• Tangutur, Venkata Sai Siddarth 
• Tortop, Derin 
• Tran, Samuel 
• Vaidyarama, Anjana  
• Vakil, Rishabh 
• Vikramaditya, Nishant 
• Wang, Evan 
• Wang, William 
• Yan, Minya 
• Yan, Thomas 
• Yang, Mingyue 
• Yang, Yajing 
• Yin, Tim 
• Yu, Christopher 
• Yun, Trinity 
• Zhang, Brett 
• Zhao, Jeffrey 
• Zhao, Roy 

International School

• Cheng, Ivan 
• Gowda, Samhitha 

Newport High School

• Chan, Tessa Lok-Woon 
• Cho, Kaden 
• Hu, Yina 
• Ladha, Roshan 
• Meyer, Rose 
• Ryu, Brandon 
• Sanjay, Aadi 
• Tam, Courtney 
• Zhang, Julia 
• Zhang, Justin 
• Zhuang, Christina 
• Zou, Ryan 

Sammamish High School

• Jung, Rachel 
• Turpin, Evan 

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2026 National Merit Scholarship Semifinalists

This year’s semifinalists include 76 students from Bellevue, Interlake, International, Newport and Sammamish high schools.

The nationwide pool of Semifinalists, representing less than one percent of U.S. high school seniors, includes the highest-scoring entrants in each state. The number of Semifinalists in a state is proportional to the state’s percentage of the national total of graduating seniors. 

In September 2025, more than 16,000 Semifinalists were named, and these academically talented high school seniors will have an opportunity to continue in the competition for 6,930 scholarships, worth nearly $26 million. National Merit Scholarship Semifinalists from the Bellevue School District include: 

Bellevue High School 

• Chae, Joe 
• Gu, Jiadong 
• Hong, Audrey 
• Kothari, Yash 
• Lee, Jachin 
• Liu, Silver 
• Scorsatto Botelho, Filipe Owen 
• Sun, Mingmei 
• Vegulla, Aarush 
• Wang, Ruibin 
• Wang, Xixi 
• Zhu, Bryan

Interlake High School 

• Acharya, Piyush 
• Aggarwal, Devesh 
• Agrawal, Aishwarya 
• Balayoghan, Leya 
• Bie, Stella 
• Chen, Blythe 
• Chen, Justin 
• Deng, Kevin 
• Feng, Patrick 
• Fu-Zhou, Victor Jiaxuan 
• Gong, Xiyuan(Carol)
• Harsha, Suchetha 
• Hinge, Adishree Anand 
• Hong, Annie 
• Jain, Khushi 
• Kashyap, Arya 
• Kienzle, Hannes 
• Koganti, Arnav 
• Krishnakumar, Devaj 
• Kumar, Palak 
• Kushner, Adina 
• Lee, Emily 
• Louie, Madeleine 
• Nayak, Mohan 
• Nguyen, Daniel 
• Oliveira, Max 
• Srivastava, Siddhant 
• Tangutur, Venkata Sai Siddarth 
• Tortop, Derin 
• Tran, Samuel 
• Vaidyarama, Anjana  
• Vakil, Rishabh 
• Vikramaditya, Nishant 
• Wang, Evan 
• Wang, William 
• Yan, Minya 
• Yan, Thomas 
• Yang, Mingyue 
• Yang, Yajing 
• Yin, Tim 
• Yu, Christopher 
• Yun, Trinity 
• Zhang, Brett 
• Zhao, Jeffrey 
• Zhao, Roy

International School 

• Cheng, Ivan 
• Gowda, Samhitha

Newport High School 

• Chan, Tessa Lok-Woon 
• Cho, Kaden 
• Hu, Yina 
• Ladha, Roshan 
• Meyer, Rose 
• Ryu, Brandon 
• Sanjay, Aadi 
• Tam, Courtney 
• Zhang, Julia 
• Zhang, Justin 
• Zhuang, Christina 
• Zou, Ryan 

Sammamish High School 

• Jung, Rachel 
• Turpin, Evan 

To become a Finalist, the Semifinalist and a high school official must submit a detailed scholarship application, in which they provide information about the Semifinalist’s academic record, participation in school and community activities, demonstrated leadership abilities, employment, and honors and awards received. A 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. 

National Merit Scholarship winners of 2026 will be announced in four nationwide news releases beginning in April and concluding in July. These scholarship recipients will join more than 389,000 other distinguished young people who have earned the Merit Scholar title. 

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Some names were omitted based on media permission status. If you or your student received this recognition and would like to be added to this list, please contact communityrelations@bsd405.org.