Four YCS students recognized as 2026 U.S. Presidential Scholar nominees

Four Yelm High School (YHS) students, each displaying a vast amount of academic excellence, were honored during a Yelm Community Schools (YCS) Board of Directors meeting on Thursday, Feb. 26, after being named 2026 U.S. Presidential Scholar nominees.

YHS students Madelyn Lawson, Sophia Mohrweis, Kolton Nash and Sofie Miera were announced as the nominees during the board meeting Thursday night.

Chris Woods, YCS superintendent, said as a former high school principal, it’s a big deal that YHS has not just one, but four nominees for the U.S. Presidential Scholar award.

“A lot of you don’t hear much about the Presidential Scholar nominees or the Presidential Scholar program. However, this year, we have four students who are being nominated for the U.S. Presidential Scholar award,” Woods said.

“These students are nominees and move on to the next round of selections. Ultimately, they could be named semifinalists and then finalists. For the overall achievement general category, (Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction) can choose up to 10 male and 10 female students in the state. Five in the arts component and five in the CTE component. That’s out of the entire state. Each high school nominates one male, one female in the overall achievement category, and one each in the CTE and arts category. This is a big deal that we have four students from Yelm High School being nominated and pushed through by OSPI.”

According to Woods, the next step for the four YHS students will be providing additional information to OSPI — which will be about themselves, YCS and the community. Additionally, Woods said each student will be asked to write several short essays.

“Stay tuned to find out what happens next,” Woods said.

Lawson and Nash are finalists in the overall achievement category for the U.S. Presidential Scholar award. Their classmate, Mohrweis, was nominated in the arts category, while the final YHS nominee, Miera, was nominated in the CTE category.

“Regardless of what happens next, whether they’re semifinalists or finalists, this is a huge deal for our high school, for our community and for these four students,” Woods said. “We will certainly keep you posted on how this progresses. We wanted to make sure that we recognized them because this is hard work. We appreciate you guys. Congratulations.”