Eight Cherokee County Seniors Earn National Merit Finalist Recognition
Students from four CCSD high schools advanced to the finalist round of one of the nation's most competitive academic scholarship programs.
Woodstock Wire Staff
Eight Cherokee County School District seniors have been named 2026 National Merit Scholarship Finalists, the district announced, placing them among the top academic achievers in the country after a rigorous, multi-stage selection process.
The finalists are spread across four of the district's high schools. Cherokee High School leads the group with three honorees — Grace Dai, Andrew Lockwood, and Ian Zeller. Creekview High School contributed two finalists, Levi Cone and Aiden Johnson, while Etowah High School's Dylan Fallin and Sequoyah High School's Matthew Chemmala and Riley O'Neill round out the Cherokee County contingent.
Reaching finalist status is no small feat. Students first qualify as Semifinalists based on exceptionally high scores on the PSAT/NMSQT, then must complete a detailed application — including academic records, an essay, and a school endorsement — before advancing to the finalist round. Only about 15,000 students nationwide reach that stage each year.
From the finalist pool, scholarship winners are selected later in the spring. Those awards, funded by the National Merit Scholarship Corporation as well as corporate and college sponsors, can provide significant financial support as these students head toward college.
For Cherokee County families, the breadth of this year's class — eight finalists across four campuses — reflects the depth of academic talent the district has cultivated. Each of these seniors began this journey as sophomores, when a single standardized test set them on a path that now puts them in rare company heading into graduation.
