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Four LSR7 seniors earn college-sponsored National Merit Scholarships

National Merit Scholarship Corporation (NMSC) announced more than 2,500 winners of National Merit Scholarships financed by U.S. colleges and universities. Officials of each sponsor college selected their scholarship winners from among the Finalists in the 2026 National Merit Scholarship Program who plan to attend their institution.

The following four LSR7 graduates were among those winners awarded scholarships funded by their future schools:

  • Braden Cantrell (LSW), University of Oklahoma
  • Carson DeMoss (LSN), University of Tulsa
  • Leo Hillbrand (LSN), University of Alabama
  • Reid Moore (LSN), University of Tulsa

These awards provide between $500 and $2,000 annually for up to four years of undergraduate study at the institution financing the scholarship. This year, 138 higher education institutions are underwriting Merit Scholarship awards through the National Merit Scholarship Program. Sponsor colleges and universities include 69 private and 69 public institutions located in 42 states and the District of Columbia.

High school juniors entered the 2026 National Merit Scholarship Program when they took the 2024 Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test (PSAT/NMSQT®), which served as an initial screen of program entrants. Last fall, more than 16,000 Semifinalists were named on a state-representational basis in numbers proportional to each state’s percentage of the national total of graduating high school seniors. Semifinalists were the highest-scoring program entrants in each state and represented less than one percent of the nation’s seniors.

To compete for Merit Scholarship awards, Semifinalists first had to advance to the Finalist level of the competition by fulfilling additional requirements. Each Semifinalist was asked to submit a detailed scholarship application, which included writing an essay and providing information about extracurricular activities, awards, and leadership positions. Semifinalists also had to have an outstanding academic record, be endorsed and recommended by a high school official, and earn SAT® or ACT® scores that confirmed the qualifying test performance.