The National Merit Scholarship Corporation has named six current Prince William County Public Schools (PWCS) students as 2026 National Merit Scholarship Program semifinalists.
The six PWCS students are:
- Luke Davis, Battlefield High School
- Alexander Gushi, Battlefield High School
- Rebecca Clark, C.D. Hylton High School
- Julienne Lim, Charles J. Colgan Sr. High School
- Benjamin Fu, Gainesville High School
- Luke Pomfret, Patriot High School
Additionally, several students who earlier attended PWCS and now attend Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology also qualified as semifinalists. These include:
- Nikolas Fitzpatrick and Jayden Yang (formerly at Gainesville Middle)
- Kaleb Hickling (formerly at Woodbridge Middle)
- Nathaniel Kerr (formerly at Rippon Middle)
- Matthew Ryan (formerly at Ronald Wilson Reagan Middle)
Across the nation, more than 16,000 high school seniors have been recognized as semifinalists in this 71st annual competition. Semifinalists must maintain stellar academic records, receive nominations from school officials, write an essay, and verify their PSAT performance through qualifying scores on the SAT or ACT.
These semifinalists will now submit detailed applications for finalist consideration, including documentation of coursework, extracurricular involvement, leadership, honors, and recommendations. Finalists and scholarship winners will be announced in spring 2026.
