Dublin Students Win National Merit Scholarships

DUBLIN, CA — Nine high school students attending school in Dublin on Monday were named National Merit Scholars, a prestigious designation for 2,500 students that comes with a $2,500 scholarship.

The scholarship winners were selected out of 15,000 candidates across the country, according to the National Merit Scholarship Corp. A committee of college admissions officers and high school counselors selected the winners as having the strongest combination of accomplishments, skills and potential for success in college.

Finalists were judged based on their Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test score, their academic record, an essay, extracurricular activities and a recommendation from a high school official.

In Dublin, the following winners were announced alongside their probable career fields.

• Sahand Adibnia, Dublin High School, chemistry.
• Janvi A. Bharucha, Dublin High School, medicine.
• Kaif A. Jeelani, Dublin High School, computer science.
• Kushal Kodnad, Quarry Lane School, computer science.
• Sujay Champati, Quarry Lane School, astronautics.
• Vijayganapatirajan Kumaravelrajan, Quarry Lane School, computer science.
• Archit Kumar, Dublin High School, engineering.
• Grace Liu, Dublin High School, computer science.
• Caitlyn Loo, Dublin High School, medicine.

The National Merit Scholarship awards are financed by the National Merit Scholarship Committee. Other National Merit Scholarships are underwritten by about 400 corporations or company foundations.

Scholarship finalists have been announced on a staggered basis since fall 2021, when 16,000 high school seniors who scored in the top 1 percent of the PSAT were named semifinalists.

In April, about 1,000 corporate-sponsored National Merit Scholars were named, and on June 1 and July 11, 4,000 more college-sponsored scholarship winners will be announced. By the end of 2022, the National Merit Scholarship Corp. estimated that 7,500 scholars will have been awarded a total of about $28 million.

In April, Quarry Lane student Harshita Joanna Krupadanam received the National Merit Battelle Scholarship, awarded by the Ohio-based nonprofit that conducts research on emerging areas of science.