High School District Boasts 39 Merit Scholar Semifinalists

The National Merit Scholarship Program has announced its list of semifinalists and 39 seniors from the were recognized.

Each year, approximately 1.5 million students participate in the program, by taking the Preliminary SAT and only the top one percent receives the recognition, according to district officials.

The PSAT measures critical reading, math problem‐solving and writing skills.

Next spring, the semifinalists continue the competition towards obtaining one of the 8,300 National Merit Scholarships, totaling more than $34 million.

To become a finalist, a semifinalist must have an outstanding academic record and SAT scores and be recommended by their high school principal.

Ninety percent of semifinalists become finalists and more than 50 percent of finalists will win a National Merit Scholarship, earning the title “Merit Scholar.”

The final application includes a student essay and information about their participation and leadership in school and community activities.

The district semifinalists are:

• Gautam Bhayani
• Penelope Burgess
• Desmond Chang
• Michael A. Chang
• Sofia C. Chang
• Sanjana Chetia
• Alexander Chiang
• Elaine S. Chou
• 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