Eight Fairfax County Public Schools students from six high schools were named winners of 2026 Merit Scholarship awards by the National Merit Scholarship Corporation, according to a June 3 announcement. The students are among more than 2,500 National Merit Finalists selected to receive scholarships funded by higher education institutions.
The scholarship recipients and their probable career fields are: Daniel Ahn of Centreville High School (music education), recipient of the National Merit Florida State University Scholarship; Eesha Kaushik of Langley High School (medicine), recipient of the National Merit Emory University Scholarship; Atul Kotamraju of McLean High School (bioengineering), recipient of the National Merit Vanderbilt University Scholarship; Karis Kim of Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology (medicine), recipient of the National Merit Wheaton College Scholarship; Payton Morris, also from Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology (computer science), recipient of the National Merit Grinnell College Scholarship; Sugirthan Nagappan Arun, also from Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology (biomedical engineering), recipient of the National Merit University of Texas at Dallas Scholarship; Elias Falke from Fairfax High School (actuarial science), recipient of the National Merit Liberty University Scholarship; and Jaeden Pangaribuan from Westfield High School (computer engineering), recipient of the National Merit University of Florida Scholarship.
Each student was evaluated on academic record, an essay, information about extracurricular activities, awards, leadership positions, SAT scores confirming outstanding test performance, as well as a recommendation and endorsement from a high school official. Each award provides between $500 and $2,000 annually for up to four years at the institution funding each scholarship.
The final group of scholarship recipients in this class will be announced in July.
