A total of 20 Houston Independent School District students from six high schools have been selected as winners of National Merit Scholarships this year with the final four recipients named this week.

The National Merit Scholarship Corporation (NMSC) annually selects winners in three categories: awards funded by corporations-recipients were named in April, awards funded by NMSC-recipients were named in May, and awards sponsored by institutions of higher learning-the first group of recipients were named in June. The final four HISD scholarship winners are in the second and final group of recipients who won awards funded by colleges and universities.

When Bellaire High School Senior Madison Olds thinks back on the past three months, she does so with a sense of bittersweet nostalgia.

She thinks about the missed basketball, baseball, and soccer games where, as a cheerleader, she didn’t get to cheer her teams on to victory. She thinks about the missed trips to Chick-Fil-A for lunch with her friends.

She thinks about missing her senior luncheon, joining with her cap-and-gown-clad classmates for their senior class picture, and graduation practice — all part of an annual Senior Week that she had been looking forward to since she was a freshman.

Thousands of HISD graduating seniors gathered at their schools last Friday to virtually celebrate their years of hard work with other Houston-area students during the City of Houston’s Citywide Graduation Celebration.

HISD joined four other area school districts – Aldine, Alief, Spring and Spring Branch – in a first-of-its-kind celebration outdoor event that included a star-studded video tribute from a number of national and local celebrities, including Houston Astros All-Star shortstop Carlos Correa and Olympic gold medalist Simone Biles.

At Wheatley High School, the event was more than just a graduation celebration. Despite starting the school year as an “Improvement Required” campus, students and staff celebrated a class with a graduation rate of 98% that earned more than three million dollars in scholarship funds.