Top Academic Honor Goes To South Windsor Student

SOUTH WINDSOR, CT — A South Windsor High School student has earned a national academic honor.

Gagandeep Parasa, of South Windsor, was named a college-sponsored National Merit Scholarship winner in an announcement released Wednesday by the National Merit Scholarship Corporation.

Subscribe

Parasa’s probable career field is electrical engineering, according to the scholarship organization. Parasa received the National Merit University of Texas at Dallas Scholarship.

The award is one of more than 2,500 college-sponsored Merit Scholarships announced Wednesday. The scholarships are financed by U.S. colleges and universities and provide between $500 and $2,000 annually for up to four years of undergraduate study at the school sponsoring the award, according to the National Merit Scholarship Corporation.

College officials selected winners from among finalists in the 2026 National Merit Scholarship Program who plan to attend their institutions, the organization said.

The University of Texas at Dallas, where Parasa’s award is sponsored, has more than 30,000 students and offers more than 140 undergraduate and graduate programs, according to the National Merit Scholarship Corporation.

Wednesday’s announcement was the third National Merit Scholar release of 2026. Additional college-sponsored scholarship recipients are expected to be announced July 13.

By the end of the 2026 competition, about 6,700 students are expected to win National Merit Scholarships worth approximately $24 million, according to the organization.

The National Merit Scholarship Program began with high school juniors who took the 2024 Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test. More than 16,000 semifinalists were later named nationwide, representing less than 1 percent of high school seniors, according to the organization.

Finalists had to meet additional requirements, including submitting a scholarship application, writing an essay, showing strong academic performance, receiving a recommendation from a high school official and earning SAT or ACT scores confirming their qualifying test performance.