Ithaca High School Principal Caren Arnold recently announced that 25 seniors—up from 15 in 2025—have been named Commended Students in the 2026 National Merit Scholarship Program.

The honored students are: 

  • Amelia Anderson

  • Jaya Bhojraj

  • Vera Chernyakov

  • Irene Chi

  • Ace Dufresne

  • Jasper Farmer

  • Skylor Ford

  • Sage Golden

  • Ethan He

  • Jack Hom

  • Jonah Jacobstein

  • Rohan Jena

  • Helina Kim

  • Owen Kinney

  • Leonid Korzukhin

  • Joseph Ma

  • Roxana Maralani

  • Geneva Matusiak

  • Andor Nadasdy

  • Joonho Park

  • Michael Qi

  • Leo Sagan

  • Sungiva St. Laurent

  • Zadie Wang

  • Wyatt Wang-Slate

These students will receive a Letter of Commendation from Ithaca High School and the National Merit Scholarship Corporation (NMSC), which oversees the program.

Nationwide, about 34,000 students are recognized as Commended Students for their outstanding academic achievements. While these students will not continue in the competition for National Merit Scholarships, their performance on the 2024 Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test (PSAT/NMSQT) places them among the top 50,000 students who entered the 2026 competition.