Guilford County Fourth Grader Meghna Rizal Named Carson Scholar

Meghna Rizal was already asking questions most adults haven't considered: can artificial intelligence tell the difference between living and nonliving things? The 10-year-old Academy at Lincoln fourth grader built her answer in Scratch, a coding environment, and that project helped her land one of the Carson Scholars Fund's 2026 college scholarships.

The Carson Scholars Fund awards $1,000 college scholarships, and the honor is typically associated with high school students. Meghna earned it in fourth grade.

"I did the project, can AI detect living and non-living things? And I did coding in Scratch," she said. "If you do like the right code, then you're able to do like anything. Like you can make any coding project."

Getting to this point required clearing a competitive local filter first. Guilford County Schools nominates two students for the honor each year. "We can only submit um one student at the elementary level and one student at the school level. Annually, Guilford County Schools submits two of these high achieving names that shine both in the classroom and in their community," a Guilford County Schools representative said in WFMY News 2 coverage of the award.

Meghna's profile extends well beyond her AI work. She competes in Battle of the Books, participates in math club and chess club, and, when given a free moment, reaches for her Wings of Fire series. An unidentified speaker in the WFMY segment described her as "a triple crown winner when it comes to academic achievement even in this very rigorous setting."

Meghna summed up the recognition simply: "I'm really happy that I got it. It like shows how much I worked in school.