PAID ADVERTISEMENT
Mountain Home High School seniors Jack Coleman and Caiden Kaspar have been named Semifinalists in the 71st annual National Merit Scholarship Program, placing them among more than 16,000 students nationwide competing for approximately 6,930 scholarships worth nearly $26 million.
Coleman and Kaspar represent less than 1% of U.S. high school seniors and include the highest-scoring entrants in Arkansas on the 2024 Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test (PSAT/NMSQT). More than 1.3 million juniors from about 20,000 high schools entered the competition by taking the qualifying test.
To advance to Finalist standing, Coleman and Kaspar must submit a detailed scholarship application that includes information about their academic record, participation in school and community activities, demonstrated leadership abilities, employment, and honors and awards received. They must also maintain an outstanding academic record, be endorsed by a high school official, write an essay, and earn SAT or ACT scores that confirm their earlier performance on the qualifying test.
About 95% of Semifinalists are expected to attain Finalist standing, with approximately 15,000 students advancing to the Finalist level in February. Roughly half of the Finalists will win a National Merit Scholarship, earning the Merit Scholar title.
Three types of National Merit Scholarships will be offered in spring 2026. Every Finalist will compete for one of 2,500 National Merit $2,500 Scholarships awarded on a state-representational basis. Additionally, about 830 corporate-sponsored Merit Scholarship awards will be provided by approximately 150 corporations and business organizations, and about 150 colleges and universities are expected to finance some 3,600 college-sponsored Merit Scholarship awards.
National Merit Scholarship Corporation, a not-for-profit organization that operates without government assistance, was established in 1955 to conduct the annual program. Scholarships are underwritten by NMSC with its own funds and by about 300 business organizations, higher education institutions, and individual donors.
Winners of the 2026 National Merit Scholarships will be announced in four nationwide news releases beginning in April and concluding in July. These scholarship recipients will join approximately 389,000 other distinguished young people who have earned the Merit Scholar title since the program’s inception.
Christopher Fulton is an award-winning investigative journalist and U.S. Navy veteran living in Arkansas. Fulton graduated from the University of Memphis in 2020 summa cum laude with a bachelor’s degree in Journalism. After seeing a void in Mountain Home’s local news market, he founded the Mountain Home Observer and currently serves as the online newspaper’s publisher and news reporter.
Advertisements
The Mountain Home Observer is a local news outlet serving Mountain Home, Arkansas and the surrounding Twin Lakes area. MHO is local, family, and veteran owned.
Local News in Mountain Home, Arkansas by the Mountain Home Observer. © 2025.
Local Mountain Home, AR News
© 2025 Mountain Home Observer. All Rights Reserved.