{"id":88856,"date":"2026-05-29T10:09:52","date_gmt":"2026-05-29T14:09:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/msde\/?p=88856"},"modified":"2026-05-29T10:09:52","modified_gmt":"2026-05-29T14:09:52","slug":"2026-presidential-scholar-semifinalists","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/msde\/2026-presidential-scholar-semifinalists\/","title":{"rendered":"13 Maryland Public HS Students Named U.S. Presidential Scholar Semifinalists"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE<\/span><\/p>\n

MEDIA CONTACT:<\/span>
<\/span>Raven Hill, 410-767-0486<\/span>
<\/span>raven.hill@maryland.gov<\/span><\/a>

<\/span><\/p>\n

13 Maryland Public HS Students Named U.S. Presidential Scholar Semifinalists<\/b><\/h2>\n

BALTIMORE (May 29, 2026)<\/b> \u2013 Thirteen Maryland public high school students from five school systems are among the 2026 U.S. Presidential Scholars Program semifinalists.<\/span><\/p>\n

Established in 1964, the U.S. Presidential Scholars Program honors the nation\u2019s most distinguished graduating high school seniors. Up to 161 students nationwide will be named U.S. Presidential Scholars by the U.S. Department of Education. Scholars are selected based on their accomplishments across many areas, including academic and artistic achievement, career and technical education (CTE) success, leadership, and school and community involvement.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201c<\/span>We are unbelievably proud by the national recognition for our students’ academic, artistic and career and technical education accomplishments,\u201d said <\/span>Dr. Carey M. Wright, State Superintendent of Schools<\/strong>. \u201cThese students are among the best and the brightest and we wish them well during the final round of the selection process.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The Maryland public school semifinalists are:<\/span><\/p>\n

Anne Arundel County Public Schools
<\/b>Nora B. Devine \u2013 Severna Park High School (CTE)<\/span><\/p>\n

Calvert County Public Schools
<\/b>Kayla Rae Jones \u2013 Patuxent High School (CTE)<\/span><\/p>\n

Howard County Public School System
<\/b>Nikhil R. Maddirala \u2013 Marriott Ridge High School\u00a0
<\/span>Advik Rai \u2013 River Hill High School\u00a0
<\/span>Chelsea I. Sun \u2013 Atholton High School (CTE)
<\/span>Jayen A. Tolia \u2013 Reservoir High School<\/span><\/p>\n

Montgomery County Public Schools
<\/b>Mayme Rose Killeen \u2013 Walt Whitman High School\u00a0
<\/span>Anya Frances Kleinman \u2013 Richard Montgomery High School
<\/span>Cooper Liu Li \u2013 Montgomery Blair High School\u00a0
<\/span>Grace E. Li \u2013 Richard Montgomery High School
<\/span>Sherry Lin \u2013 Richard Montgomery High School
<\/span>Aditya Purohit \u2013 Richard Montgomery High School<\/span><\/p>\n

Washington County Public Schools
<\/b>Ella Bryn Rechtorovic \u2013 Williamsport High School (Arts)<\/span><\/p>\n

A total of 14 Maryland public and private school students are among the 627 semifinalists nationwide this year, including Joseph Michael Doherty from Georgetown Preparatory School in North Bethesda.<\/span><\/p>\n

For more information, visit <\/span>www.ed.gov\/psp<\/span><\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n

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<\/b><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE<\/span>
\nMEDIA CONTACT:<\/span><\/span>Raven Hill, 410-767-0486<\/span><\/span>raven.hill@maryland.gov<\/span><\/a> <\/span>
\n13 Maryland Public HS   …Learn more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":281,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-88856","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-newsreleases"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/msde\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/88856","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/msde\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/msde\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/msde\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/281"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/msde\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=88856"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/msde\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/88856\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":88859,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/msde\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/88856\/revisions\/88859"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/msde\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=88856"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/msde\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=88856"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/msde\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=88856"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}