21 Fremont Students Earn $2500 National Merit Scholarships: See List

FREMONT, CA — The winners of this year’s $2500 National Merit Scholarships, including 21 students in Fremont, were announced on Wednesday by the National Merit Scholarship Corporation. The students were chosen from a pool of 15,000 national finalists representing fewer than 1 percent of U.S. high school seniors. California had 322 scholarship winners.

The Fremont winners are:

• Anika Bastin, Probable career field: Business, St. Francis High School In Mountain View
• Chinmay Devadhar, Probable career field: Software Engineering, Washington High School
• Chris J. Ge, Probable career field: Mathematics, Mission San Jose High School
• Alexander He, Probable career field: Academia, Mission San Jose High School
• Shree Jay, Probable career field: Physics, Washington High School
• Chaitya H. Jodhavat, Probable career field: Computer Science, American High School
• Raja K. Kavasseri, Probable career field: Information Science, John F. Kennedy High School
• Ryan Liu, Probable career field: Bioinformatics, Mission San Jose High School
• Amy Luo, Probable career field: Bioengineering, Mission San Jose High School
• Meryl Mathew, Probable career field: Computer Engineering, American High School
• Eshaan Mistry, Probable career field: Biochemistry, Irvington High School
• Arunima Prakash, Probable career field: Marine Biology, Mission San Jose High School
• Suhani Shukla, Probable career field: Computer Science, Irvington High School
• Selena Tang, Probable career field: Economics, Mission San Jose High School
• Eric S. Teng, Probable career field: Computer Science, Mission San Jose High School
• Nandana V. Venkitesh, Probable career field: Mechanical Engineering, American High School
• Woyu Wang, Probable career field: Computer Science, American High School
• Samvar M. Yedur, Probable career field: Bioengineering, American High School
• Jerry Yuan, Probable career field: Astronomy, Mission San Jose High School
• David Y. Zhu, Probable career field: Computer Science, American High School
• Sophia Zhu, Probable career field: Computer Science, Irvington High School

They were selected by a committee of college admissions officers and high school counselors who reviewed academic records, Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test scores, contributions and leadership in school and community activities, an essay written by the finalist, and a recommendation written by a high school official.

The first round of winners received corporate sponsored scholarships:

6 Fremont Students Receive 2023 National Merit Scholarships

On June 7 and July 10, more scholarship recipients will be announced. Around 3,800 students will receive these college-sponsored Merit Scholarships.

In all, 7,250 scholarships worth nearly $28 million will be awarded in multiple rounds of this year's National Merit Scholarship competition which began when juniors took the Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test. The number of semifinalists in each state is proportional to the state’s percentage of the national total of graduating seniors.