Alana Moehring Mallard
Semi-finalists were named recently for the 2026 National Merit Scholarship Program, including 30 seniors from nine West Austin schools.
Named as semifinalists are Leila Schuneman and Parker Benko from Anderson High School; Phoebe Miller, Noam Stewart, and Gavin Pruett from Austin High School; and Iris Burns-Trahanovsky, Alexis Fredine, Margaret Gravette, James Roden, Quinn Stafford, Anna Ward, and Shoshanna Winchel from McCallum High School.
Hyde Park High School senior Matthew McInereney was named a semifinalist; as were St. Stephen’s Episcopal School seniors Truman Bares, Liam Eggleston, Annie Ehrlich, Felicite Jubelin, Edward Leigh, Jiayin Miao, Avery Robinette, Alexander Vokes, and Eli Yorio; Anna Sloan from St. Michael’s Prep; and Jude Bush, Presley Kuo, and Alexander Sutton from St. Andrew’s Episcopal School.
Semifinalists also include Regent School seniors Caleb Kim, Ella McKanna, and Harrisonne Wu; and Parker Sloan from Alpha High School.
Some 16,000 semi-finalists across the nation will compete in this 71st annual National Merit Scholarship Program, vying for about 7,000 National Merit Scholarships valued at nearly $26 million and announced in the spring. More than 1.3 million juniors in 20,000 high schools entered the 2026 National Merit Scholarship Program, and this nationwide pool of 16,000 semi-finalists represents less than one percent of U.S. high school seniors.
