Three students from the Texas Panhandle and South Plains area won National Merit scholarships, the organization announced this week.
Quan D. Nguyen, with Amarillo High School, won a National Merit Scholarship of $2,500. His probable career field is listed as music performance. The award is supported by National Merit Scholarship Corporation’s own fund.
Tate Edward Wilhelm, with Canadian High School, won a National Merit Scholarship of $2,500, underwritten by 1970 Merit Scholar William L. Cameron, Jr. His probable career field is listed as computer science. The award is supported by a generous donation to NMSC’s President’s Fund.
Harrison R. Velasco, with Lubbock High School, won a National Merit Scholarship of $2,500. His probable career field is listed as video game design. The award is supported by National Merit Scholarship Corporation’s own funds.
The honors were announced by the National Merit Scholarship Corporation (NMSC). The three area students were among more than 16,000 semifinalists in the 71st annual National Merit Scholarship Program. The 2,500 Merit Scholar designees were chosen from a talent pool of more than 15,000 finalists.
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.
More than 1.3 million juniors in about 20,000 high schools entered the 2026 program competition by taking the 2024 qualifying test, which served as an initial screen of program entrants. The nationwide pool of semifinalists includes the highest-scoring entrants in each state, which is calculated proportional to the state’s percentage of the national total of graduating seniors.
Scholars were selected by a committee of college admissions officers and high school counselors, who appraised a information submitted by both the finalists and their high schools: the academic record, including difficulty level of subjects studied and grades earned; scores from the Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test; contributions and leadership in school and community activities; an essay written by the finalist; and a recommendation written by a high school official.
Today’s release is the second announcement of winners in the 2026 National Merit Scholarship Program. On April 22, about 700 recipients of corporate-sponsored Merit Scholarship awards were named, and on June 3 and July 13, some 3,500 college-sponsored Merit Scholarship winners will be announced.
By the conclusion of this year’s competition, about 6,700 academic champions will have won National Merit Scholarships worth approximately $24 million.
This article originally appeared on Amarillo Globe-News: Three West Texas students win National Merit scholarships
Reporting by Kristina Wood, Amarillo Globe-News / Amarillo Globe-News
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
