Twelve Kentucky students have been named semifinalists in the 2026 U.S. Presidential Scholars Program, representing a significant achievement in recognition of academic and artistic excellence. The students are among 627 high school semifinalists announced nationwide for their accomplishments in aca demics, the arts, and career and technical education fields, according to Kentucky Teacher. The U.S. Presidential Scholars Program was established in 1964 to recognize and honor some of the nation’s most distinguished graduating high school seniors. The program has expanded over the decades to include recognition for exceptional talent in the visual, creative and performing arts since 1979, and for accomplishments in career and technical education fields since 2015. Each year, up to 161 students are ultimately named as Presidential Scholars, one of the nation’s highest honors for high school students. Every year, over 5,000 candidates apply after scoring exceptionally well on the SAT or ACT, though application is by invitation only. In Kentucky, students must be nominated by their high school and apply to be considered for nomination by the Kentucky Commissioner of Education. From the nationwide semifinalist pool, two students from each state, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico and U.S. families living abroad will be selected as final U.S. Presidential Scholars. Those announcements will be made later this year. The national pool of semifinalists was narrowed from over 5,000 candidates who scored exceptionally well on standardized tests. Selected candidates were evaluated on their academic achievement, personal characteristics, leadership and service activities, and essays as part of the rigorous selection process. This article was generated by AI (claude-haiku-4-5-20251001) based on source material from Kentucky Teacher, enriched with 3 web searches. The original source is available at http://www.kentuckyteacher.org/news/2026/06/12-kentucky-students-named-2026-u-s-presidential-scholars-semifinalists/. View in feeds The post 12 Kentucky students named 2026 Presidential Scholars semifinalists appeared first on The Lexington Times. ...read more read less