Katy ISD has provided us with an updated list of honorees and our story has been updated with that new information.
KATY, Texas — Katy Independent School District students claimed more than 100 National Merit Scholarship semifinalist spots, with Seven Lakes High School leading the district with 45 honorees.
The 2026 semifinalists represent the top PSAT/NMSQT scorers in Texas and rank among fewer than 1% of high school seniors nationwide to receive the distinction from the National Merit Scholarship Corporation.
"These remarkable students embody the hard work and dedication of our Katy ISD students," Assistant Superintendent for School Leadership & Support Emily Craig said. "This accomplishment reflects their commitment to academic excellence and the unwavering commitment of their families, teachers and school communities."
How Students Qualified for National Merit Recognition
The semifinalists emerged from more than 1.3 million juniors nationwide who entered the 2026 National Merit Scholarship Program by taking the 2024 Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test. Each state's highest scorers earned semifinalist status.
Students can now compete for more than 6,000 National Merit Scholarships worth nearly $26 million. Advancing to finalist status requires submitting a detailed application with academic records, school and community activities, leadership experience, employment history and honors, plus SAT or ACT scores and an essay.
District administrators from the six high schools presented certificates to the semifinalists during a reception on behalf of the Board of Trustees.
Katy ISD 2026 National Merit Scholarship Semifinalists
Katy ISD 2026 National Merit Scholarship Semifinalists
Cinco Ranch High School
- Andrew Xia
- Reed Whisenant
- Alexander Park
- Nathan Olivier
- Ivan La
- Alyssa Jiang
- Elyssa Hung
- Ryan Gover
- Lucille Ebben
Jordan High School
- George Rhoades
- Enze Yu
- Sumanth Sivakumar
- Rikin Singhvi
- Jay Sahni
- Emma Chung
- Muhammad Daniyal Salman
- Ian Kim
- Riya Sharma
- Aimee Xia
- Johan Jacob
- Grace Dong
- Ian Choi
- Christian Hough
- Kyle Nguyen
- Caleb Albers
- Suchay Kommisetty
- Pranav Ramji
- Eric Yang
- Murugan Jagan
- Adleigh Krile
- Truman Sun
- Anitra Sen
- Maggie Yang
- Andrea Lopez
- Saira Narang
- Rishan Hemrajani
- Michael Wang
- Nathan Xu
- Rohan Kishore
Katy High School
- Dante Balacchi
- Spencer Gernale
Mayde Creek High School
- Jamie Klander
Seven Lakes High School
- Aarjav Desai
- Isaac Park
- Veronica Zhu
- Annie Zhou
- Raina Zhang
- Philip Zhang
- Michelle Zhang
- Merissa Zhang
- Eric Zhang
- Ken Woodward
- Rohanna White
- Matthew Tsang
- Erica Zhang
- An Truong
- Aarushi Thatola
- Aman Singh
- Shailesh Satewar
- Urmi Sarkar
- Christopher Ou
- Terynce Nguyen
- Vedant Mohan
- Sarah Lee
- Aarush Kudariya
- Maimunah Kausar
- Rahid Ismail
- Jarrett Hutto
- Aditya Hariprasad
- Samir Gandhi
- Amaan Faisal
- Xinyue Dong
- Saumya Dharap
- Emmanuelle Chern
- Ailsa Cheng
- Sherry Chen
- Autumn Brown
- Brandon Rui
- Hanyu Song
- Svend Rydahl
- Ban Mai Nguyen
- Komal Maniar
- Brian Lu
- Rosie Li
- Annie Li
- Ruiyang Huang
- Daniel Deng
Taylor High School
- Nitya Bhargava
- Joseph Cooper
- Travis Feng
- Abhishree Gupta
- Damon Hong
- Timothy Hong
- Daniel Kim
- Alex Kwon
- Jacob Ma
- Sheryl Surawijaya
- Sophia Tang
- Ella Wang
Tompkins High School
- Racheet Bedi
- Arjun Chandupatla
- Timothy Chau
- Evelyn Chen
- Gaoyu Chen
- Haofei Deng
- Grace Ding
- Ryan Du
- Jooni Hwang
- Joshua Joiner
- Abhinav Kanchupatla
- Shreyas Kini
- Vaishnav Krishnan
- Sai Pavan Kukkadapu
- Elvin Li
- Ryan Lin
- Sean Lu
- Aahana Rao
- Benjamin Van Strien
- Faizan Zameer