South Bay Student Named Semifinalist For 2022 Scholarship

CHULA VISTA, CA — The 2022 National Merit Scholarship Program semifinalists were announced last week, including a student from Chula Vista.

The San Diego County students and their high schools are:

Carlsbad

Pacific Ridge School

• Chang, Michael
• Chong, Joan C.
• Qiu, Connor C.

Chula Vista

Eastlake High School

• Scott, Joshua M.

Encinitas

San Dieguito Academy

• Ballow, Evan C.
• Chen, Kyra Y.
• Gao, Peter Y.
• Pawlak, Jonah K.
• Peeler, Thomas J.
• Zhang, Alex Y.

Escondido

Classical Academy High School

• Usher, Alexander M.

La Jolla

The Bishop's School

• Aguilar, Joseph G.
• Bitar, Nadia S.
• Chang, Andrew Y.
• Fang, Annie
• Guang, Rolan H.
• Hong, Emma
• Jung, Christopher
• Li, Emma J.
• Liu, Nicholas
• Macomber, Connor S.
• Malhotra, Clare K.
• Park, Soyoon
• Rix, Andrea L.
• Shi, Yumei
• Wei, Stanley T.
• Whitman, August J.
• Zeng, Michael L.
• Zhao, Claire

La Jolla Country Day School

• Beard, Cienna C.
• Chunduru, Sohan
• Desai, Khalil O.
• Jaffee, Lucy C.
• Li, Vivian W.
• Nagle, Roma A.
• Zhou, Yuxiang

La Jolla High School

• Chanda, Devan I.
• Frost, Katherine S.
• Gaffney, Caroline S.
• Park, Andrew K.
• Wang, Leon N.
• Wu, Maya

Oceanside

Mission Vista High School

• Song, Ji In

Poway

Homeschool

• Simi, Paola K.

Poway High School

• Major, Adam E.
• Trust, Ryan

Rancho Bernardo

Rancho Bernardo High School

• Cho, Dain C.
• Garg, Aniket
• Huang, Ashley I.
• Malik, Herman D.
• Nadalin, Aya A.
• Rastogi, Krishna
• Shanmugam, Emily M.
• Sinclair, Joshua Z.
• Wang, Trista Z.
• Zhou, Jonathan D.

Rancho Santa Fe

Horizon Prep

Phillip, Amanda L.

San Diego

The Cambridge School

• Gadient, Stefan S.
• Xu, Zoe L.

Canyon Crest Academy

• Agrawal, Ayush
• Calloji, Adarsh
• Cao, Emma
• Charat-Collins, Joshua N.
• Chyung, Audrey
• Clairmont, Ryan
• Connell, Jessica
• Denning, Lila G.
• Gao, Andrew K.
• Goswami, Marissa
• Kang, William
• Li, Allison Y.
• Lin, Alice
• Liu, Jason
• Luo, Kevin H.
• Mao, Kailan X.
• Maynard, Kimberly
• Pisor, Ian
• Qiao, Selena
• Shriram, Anjana T.
• Vora, Arnav S.
• Wang, Linxi
• Xu, Amy
• Yue, Jamie
• Zeng, Jinghan A.
• Zhang, Joshua E.
• Zuo, Xiaofan

Canyon Hills High School (Junipero Serra High School)

• Bodenhamer, Tyler
• Do, Annie N.
• Ruhe, Maya EM

Cathedral Catholic High School

• Nartker, Emily

Del Norte High School

• Beniwal, Sara
• Boedeker, Madeleine
• Chen, Hannah M.
• Fan, Sunny Y.
• Jin, Bryant
• Kim, David
• Li, Justin M.
• Lu, Jasmine S.
• Mir, Eyaad I.
• Mittal, Aashi
• Myint, Kyle J.
• Nagpal, Saurav
• Sheng, Jeffrey
• Sitlani, Sanya J.
• Vo, Anthony M.
• Wei, Rebecca K.
• Xie, Sarah W.

Patrick Henry High School

• Kalal, Elijah L.
• Mack, Robert J.
• Miller, Thomas J.
• Peterson, Svea A.
• Rice, Justy K.
• Utgaard, Emerson
• Yeung, Tsz Chung

Homeschool

• Zhu, Stephen Q.

Mira Mesa High School

• Kasner, Kyle
• Morse, Brian K.
• Sievers, Samuel L.
• Welsh, Sophia P.
• Yadavalli, Anirudh

Mount Carmel High School

• Kim, Daniel S.
• Ramesh, Kavya
• Ramesh, Kavya
• Sim, Danielle
• Sim, Kayleigh
• Widyono, Stacy N.

Mt. Everest Academy

• Amelang, James A.
• Zhuang, Hsiang-Kuang

Francis Parker School

• Altes, Hillary B.
• Banga, Ashveen
• Bernicker, Lucas E.
• Britton, Oliver S.
• Effress, Benjamin M.
• Gibson, Alexandra R.
• Hardy, Tamsin E.
• Partnoy, Zachary
• Sheres, Alec M.
• Sohn, Anna D.

Point Loma High School

• Wilson, Caitlin

Scripps Ranch High School

• Aggarwal, Saatvik
• Banchongsirichareon, Sidsadee
• Chen, Yi Ren
• Dorsey, Ella M.
• Fan, Aaron
• Jackowski, Samuel W.
• Kamath, Priya
• Lim, Dana E.
• Portrey, Cassandra J.
• Rewolinski, Alexander J.
• Su, Brandon C.
• Varga, Viola H.
• Wadhwa, Dhruv
• Xu, Kayla T.
• Zhou, Vanessa

Torrey Pines High School

• Andrijanic, Tamara
• Cai, Daniel
• Fang, Jimmy D.
• Feng, Benjamin Y.
• Krishnan, Nanditha
• Lee, David Y.
• Li, Chengda
• Markus, Philip C.
• Nie, Owen L.
• Peng, Megan
• Salz, Annika L.
• Sampath, Atharv G.
• Vargas, Satya A.
• Wu, Sarah S.
• Xie, Yuehua A.
• Yu, Alice S.

University City High School

• Allen-Perez, Gonzalo B.
• Hanaki, Meilene K.
• Wiese, James L.

Westview High School

• Chakraborty, Sattwik
• Dong, Sarah
• Fong, Samuel Y.
• Hsu, Wei Ting
• Lin, Ethan N.
• Nasser, Rayyan L.
• Ng, Annabel H.
• Pham, Michael V.
• Vermani, Aakarsh
• Xia, Jayden
• Yeon, Jehyeok
• Zhang, Andrew Y.
• Zhang, Charles B.
• Zhang, Ethan

These students are among some 16,000 national semifinalists in the 67th annual National Merit Scholarship Program.

They will compete for some 7,500 National Merit Scholarships worth nearly $30 million. The scholarships will be awarded next spring and summer.

The semifinalists where chosen after they took the 2020 Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test, which served as an initial screen of program entrants.

The semifinalists represent less than 1 percent of U.S. high school seniors.

The number of semifinalists in each state is proportional to the state's percentage of the national total of graduating seniors.

Next, semifinalists and a high school official must submit a detailed scholarship application, including an academic record, participation in school and community activities, demonstrated leadership abilities, employment, and honors and awards received.

The semifinalists must also write an essay, and earn SAT or ACT scores that confirm the student's earlier performance on the qualifying test.

Finalists will be announced in February. All National Merit Scholarship winners will be selected from this group.

There are three types of 2022 National Merit Scholarships:

• 2,500 National Merit $2500 Scholarships that will be awarded on a state-representational basis.
• 1,000 corporate-sponsored Merit Scholarship awards will be provided by approximately 220 corporations and business organizations.
• 180 colleges and universities are expected to finance some 4,000 college-sponsored Merit Scholarship awards for finalists who will attend the sponsor institution.