By Mike McCombs
The Island News
Beaufort High School senior Halle Tran has been named a semifinalist in the 2026 National Merit Scholarship Program.
Tran, one of five semifinalists from the Beaufort County School District (BCSD), is the only semifinalist from northern Beaufort County.
“Honestly, … it makes me feel really proud,” Tran said Monday, Sept. 22. “It’s kind of … a physical representation of the work I’ve been putting into school. You know it’s a really nice reminder, but doing all my college applications and going through school right now, it’s just really nice to see a reward, you know, [for] all of my work.”
Students enter the 2026 National Merit Scholarship Program competition by taking the 2024 Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test. They are part of the nationwide pool of semifinalists that includes the highest-scoring entrants in each state, placing them in the top one percent of all U.S. high school seniors.
As semifinalists, they will compete with more than 16,000 national semifinalists for 6,930 college scholarships worth nearly $26 million.
“These students have achieved something truly remarkable,” BCSD Superintendent Frank Rodriguez said in a news release. “Their hard work, dedication, and academic excellence have placed them among the top scholars in the nation. We are incredibly proud of them, and we look forward to seeing all they accomplish as they advance in this prestigious competition.”
According to the BCSD, to become a finalist, each semifinalist and an official for their high school must submit a detailed application that provides information about the student’s academic record, participation in school and community activities, leadership abilities, employment, and honors and awards. In addition, each semifinalist must be endorsed and recommended by an official from their high school, write an essay, and earn SAT or ACT scores that confirm the student’s earlier score on the qualifying test.
The 2026 National Merit Scholarship winners will be announced between April and July of 2026. Scholarship recipients will join nearly 389,000 other distinguished young people who have earned the Merit Scholar title since the program’s inception.
John Paul II Catholic School senior Matthew Yanachik of Bluffton was named a National Merit Semifinalist, while Holy Trinity Classical Christian School Senior Class President Chloe Miles has been named a National Merit Commended Student, meaning she is among the top 50,000 students nationwide.
Mike McCombs is the editor of The Island News and can be reached at TheIslandNews@gmail.com.
