38 Vienna, Oakton Seniors Named National Merit Scholarship Semifinalists For 2026

VIENNA, VA — Thirty-eight students at Vienna and Oakton schools were named semifinalists in the next round of National Merit Scholarships in 2026.

The National Merit Scholarship program recognizes academically successful high school students, with winners representing less than 1 percent of the country's high school seniors. In the 71st annual program, the National Merit Scholarship Corporation has named more than 16,000 finalists.

Over 1.3 million students in 20,000 U.S. high schools were entered into the National Merit Scholarship Program by taking the 2024 PSAT as juniors. The semifinalists were the highest-scoring students in each state and represent less than 1 percent of high school seniors. The number chosen from each state is proportional to its share of graduating seniors in the U.S.

About 95 percent of semifinalists are expected to be named finalists, according to the National Merit Scholarship Corporation. To be considered for finalist status, semifinalists and a high school official must complete a scholarship application with details on the academic record, participation in school and community activities, demonstrated leadership abilities, employment, and honors and awards received. The semifinalists must have an outstanding academic record throughout high school, be endorsed and recommended by a high school official, write an essay, and earn an SAT or ACT score reinforcing their qualifying PSAT score.

Scholarship winners will be chosen from the approximately 15,000 finalists. There will be 2,500 National Merit $2500 Scholarships awarded by the National Merit Scholarship Corporation on a state-representational basis. About 150 corporations and business organizations will provide 830 corporate-sponsored scholarships to students whose parents work at sponsoring businesses or who live in the communities where offices are located. About 150 colleges and universities will provide 3,600 college-sponsored awards to students attending their institutions.

In all, 6,930 National Merit Scholarships worth nearly $26 million will be awarded in 2026. Scholarship announcements will be made from April to July 2026.

"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," the National Merit Scholarship Corporation says.

Semifinalists are grouped by the town or city in which they attend school. The students at Vienna and Oakton schools named as semifinalists are:

Vienna

• Sahana Aravind, James Madison High School
• Liana A. Carr, James Madison High School
• Asha B. Jha, James Madison High School
• Margaret L. Kisner, James Madison High School
• Thomas A. Santonicola, James Madison High School
• Sara S. Yoshikawa, James Madison High School
• Tianxing Zhang, James Madison High School
• Andrew L. Zi, James Madison High School
• Ava Ferry, Oakcrest School
• Ronav Akella, Oakton High School
• Jovina D. Arulandu, Oakton High School
• Kurshat I. Bilgin, Oakton High School
• Jaxen H. Bream, Oakton High School
• Sophie R. Burrell, Oakton High School
• Aaron J. Chen, Oakton High School
• Anna E. Chen, Oakton High School
• Ashley Z. Chen, Oakton High School
• Kevin S. Geng, Oakton High School
• Caitlin L. Houston, Oakton High School
• Chunjie Huang, Oakton High School
• Linus I. Koepcke, Oakton High School
• Daniel S. Lee, Oakton High School
• Natalie I. Leong, Oakton High School
• Sihe Liu, Oakton High School
• Yuting Liu, Oakton High School
• Vishal Manikanden, Oakton High School
• Sibel M. Mehmed, Oakton High School
• Matthew I. Negron, Oakton High School
• Siddharth Pubbaraju, Oakton High School
• Arnav Sharma, Oakton High School
• Ryan J. Shin, Oakton High School
• Shawn X. Wu, Oakton High School
• Albert Y. Xu, Oakton High School
• Claire Y. Zhang, Oakton High School

Oakton

• Owen Davies, Flint Hill School
• Amber Li, Flint Hill School
• Ekaterina Orlova, Flint Hill School
• Serene Zhu, Flint Hill School

In addition to the Vienna and Oakton schools, there were semifinalists from George C. Marshall High School, which includes part of the Vienna area in its boundaries. Semifinalists include Anna L. Bae, Jasper P. Deighton, Nicholas S. Dierbeck, Alexander R. Duff, Jordan R. Gee, Katherine D. Lee, Nathaniel R. Ni, Karen A. Owens, Ayesha R. Piracha, Sulaiman R. Piracha, Eloise Quan, Gavril G. Tefferi, Timothy Y. Tu, David Wang and Yixiang Wang.