Lawrence Virtual School senior Emma Ryan has been named a National Merit Scholarship semifinalist, joining six local peers who also achieved the honor.
“Over 1.3 million juniors in about 20,000 high schools entered the 2026 National Merit Scholarship Program by taking the 2024 Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test (PSAT/NMSQT®), which served as an initial screen of program entrants,” according to a news release from the school district.
Semifinalists represent less than 1% of high school seniors across the country and include the highest-scoring entrants in each state, according to the release.
Other Lawrence students who made the cut were Bishop Seabury Academy senior Marcella MacGonagle, Lawrence High School seniors Eli Cokelet and James Gassmann, and Free State High School seniors Nathaniel Kramer, Isaac Mosier and Neel Sabarwal. Those students’ names were announced Wednesday.
Lawrence Virtual School is in the Lawrence school district. However, Audrey Ryan, Emma’s mother, said Emma was classified differently in the list of National Merit Scholar qualifiers because she attends an online school, so the school district missed her at first.
Nationwide, there were more than 16,000 National Merit semifinalists, according to the district’s release.
Finalists, to be determined through an application process, can compete for various scholarships during the spring semester.
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