MORGANTOWN – Two students from Monongalia County are now in the nation’s elite of top-performing high school students.
University High School’s Emily Nguyen and Maxwell Chen of Morgantown have been named to the 2026 of National Merit scholars, putting them in a cohort of just 2,500 students across the U.S. to earn the honor.
Nguyen is considering a career in biomedical engineering. Chen may pursue study and research in the field of neuroscience.
They now share the distinction with nine other students in West Virginia.
Other Mountain State honorees are:
Stella Rubi, of Bridgeport High, Bridgeport.
Smit Babariya, of Parkersburg High, Parkersburg.
Gabriella Velazquez Robertson, of Cabell-Midland High in Ona.
Maya Panta and Zimeng Ren, both of Woodrow Wilson High, in Beckley.
Vinu Chandraseker, of George Washington High, Charleston.
Sophie Allen of Oak Hill High School, Oak Hill.
Nathaniel Vincent of Greenbrier East High, Lewisburg.
Scott Leonard, of Jefferson High School, Shenandoah Junction.
National Merit scholars are always selected by committees of college admissions officers and high school counselors.
Grade-point-averages, SAT scores and the difficulty of course schedules are considered in the judging process, along with leadership roles, both in the school and community. Applicants must also write an essay.
Scholars may use their $2,500 offering at any regionally accredited U.S. college or university.
The National Merit Scholarship program was born of the Cold War in 1955, over concerns then that the U.S. was lagging intellectually in the world.
More than 350,000 scholarships have been given out since that first year.
Semifinalists from that more than 70-year span have included students who have gone on to pursue diverse walks – from filmmaker M. Night Shyamalan to blues guitarist Elvin Bishop.
