39 Los Gatos Saratoga High School Merit Scholar Finalists Announced

The National Merit Scholarship Program has announced its list of finalists and 39 Los Gatos Saratoga Joint Union High School District seniors—picked as semifinalists last fall—are now one step closer toward obtaining the coveted scholarships.

In March, the program will begin mailing scholarship offers to the approximately 8,400 students who will have earned the title of National Merit Scholar. These scholarships will total more than $34 million and are funded by corporations, business organizations, and colleges and universities.

This is a rigorous process that, in the past, has honored the likes of Bill Gates, Ben Bernanke, and Felicia Day.

For 2012, the LGSUHSD finalists are:

• Gautam Bhayani
• Penelope Burgess
• Desmond Chang
• Michael A. Chang
• Sofia C. Chang
• Sanjana Chetia
• Alexander Chiang
• Elaine S. Chou
• Neela Easwar
• Will C. Edman
• David K. Eng
• Anoop Raj Galivanche
• Cecilia Hollenhorst
• Peter Hsieh
• Daniel Hsu
• Justine Y. Huang
• Christopher Jones
• Suhyoung Kang
• Isabel McPherson
• Ailene Nguyen
• Kelsey Owyang
• Viraj V. Parmar
• Hansen Qian
• Manish Raghavan
• Kushal J. Raj
• Krishnan Raman
• Varsha S. Ramesh
• Antara T. Rao
• Meghana T. Rao
• Parul Singh
• Anshuman Siripurapu
• Victor C. Sutardja
• Christine Tseng
• Paras Unadkat
• Jason J. Wu
• Jennifer Yang
• Alissa Y. Zhang
• Anna Zhang
• Myron Zhang

Superintendent Bob Mistele congratulates each of the finalists, noting “We are proud of all of our students and their accomplishments and it is especially gratifying to see so many being recognized by this prestigious program. I wish each of these students every success in this program, during the final months of their career as LGSUHSD students and in their lives beyond high school.”

Each year, approximately 1.5 million students participate in the National Merit Scholarship Program, begun in 1955, by taking the Preliminary SAT (PSAT) and only the top one percent receives the recognition. The PSAT measures critical reading, math problem‐solving and writing skills.

Three types of National Merit scholarships will be offered in the spring. Every finalist will compete for one of 2,500 scholarships worth $2,500 that will be awarded on a state representational basis. Approximately 1,000 corporate-sponsored scholarship awards will be provided by about 240 corporations and business organizations for finalists who meet their specified criteria. In addition, about 200 colleges and universities finance some 4,800 college-sponsored scholarship awards for finalists who will attend the sponsor institutions.

National Merit Scholarship winners of 2012 will be announced in four nationwide news releases beginning in April and concluding in July. These scholarship recipients will join more than 283,000 other distinguished young people who have earned the Merit Scholar title.

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