Carson High's Hannah Budd Wins National Merit Scholarship

Hannah Budd started her path to nursing with a dream and ended her senior year at Carson High School with a full-tuition scholarship to make it happen.

The recent 2026 graduate earned a National Merit Scholarship sponsored by Brigham Young University, placing her among fewer than one percent of the nation's high school seniors. The scholarship covers her full tuition as she pursues her nursing degree at BYU's Provo, Utah campus.

Budd's journey to this achievement began as a junior when she took the PSAT qualifying test in 2024. Last September, she learned she was one of more than 16,000 semifinalists selected nationwide. Her classmate Maria Benshoof also made the cut.

But becoming a semifinalist was just the beginning. To advance to finalist status, Budd completed a detailed application including essays, documented her leadership roles, and took additional standardized tests to confirm her academic performance. More than 15,000 students became finalists, and only about half received scholarships.

At Carson High, Budd didn't just excel in the classroom with her 4.9 GPA. She balanced Advanced Placement courses with Career and Technical Education health science classes, showing her commitment to both academic theory and practical skills. As chapter secretary of HOSA: Future Health Professionals, she won the state-level sports medicine competition and spent three years in the National Honor Society.

Why This Inspires

What makes Hannah's story so powerful isn't just the impressive numbers or the prestigious scholarship. It's watching a student clearly identify her passion for healthcare early and then build every piece of her high school experience around that goal.

This year's National Merit competition awarded nearly $24 million in scholarships to 6,500 distinguished graduates. The program, run without government assistance since 1955, has now recognized more than 395,000 outstanding students and distributed over $1.4 billion in awards. Some 138 colleges and universities sponsored over 3,250 scholarships this year alone, investing in students like Hannah who show exceptional promise.

BYU officials selected Hannah from among all National Merit finalists planning to attend their university. She'll join more than 30,000 students from across all 50 states and 60 countries studying in one of the school's 180 majors across twelve colleges.

Carson City now celebrates another homegrown success story headed toward a bright future in healthcare.