The National Merit Scholarship Corporation (NMSC) this week announced Richland School District Two has another 2026 National Merit College-Sponsored Scholarship winner. Christophe X. Ndemeye, a recent graduate of Blythewood High School, received this prestigious academic honor. He is one of over 750 additional winners announced nationally. These Merit Scholar designees join more than 2,500 other college-sponsored award recipients who were announced in June.
Ndemeye received the National Merit University of South Carolina Scholarship. He plans to study Aerospace Engineering at USC. This award provides between $500 and $2,000 annually for up to four years of undergraduate study at the institution financing the scholarship.
This final group of winners brings the number of 2026 National Merit Scholars to about 6,500. These distinguished high school graduates will receive scholarships for undergraduate study worth a total of nearly $24 million. In addition to college-sponsored awards, two other types of National Merit Scholarships were offered—2,500 National Merit $2500 Scholarships, for which all Finalists competed, and about 700 corporate-sponsored Merit Scholarship awards for Finalists who met criteria specified by their grantor organizations.
This year’s competition for National Merit Scholarships began when high school juniors took the 2024 Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test (PSAT/NMSQT®), which served as an initial screen of program entrants.