Pleasanton's National Merit Scholarship Semifinalists Named

PLEASANTON, CA — The 68th annual National Merit Scholarship Program announced its high-school semifinalists Wednesday — 16,000 nationwide, with 63 in Pleasanton — competing for $28 million in scholarships.

Less than one percent of U.S. high school seniors are chosen as semifinalists in the prestigious competition.

These academically talented high school seniors have an opportunity to continue in the competition for some 7,250 National Merit Scholarships to be distributed in spring 2023, according to the National Merit Scholarship Corp.

High school juniors entered the 2023 competition by taking the 2021 preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test, the initial screening. The nationwide pool of semifinalists represent less than one percent of U.S. high school seniors, the organization said.

To become a finalist, students submit detailed scholarship applications with academic records, participation in school and community activities, demonstrated leadership abilities, employment, and honors and awards received, along with essays and recommendations from high school officials.

In Pleasanton, semifinalists include:

FROM AMADOR VALLEY HIGH SCHOOL:

1. An, Joshua
2. Anand, Rathul Shreyas
3. Bai, Richard J.
4. Cao, Ziyue
5. Chen, Andrew W.
6. Chen, Dennis R.
7. Chudasama, Aditya
8. Deshpande, Arya A.
9. Frey, Annika L.
10. Guo, Albert H.
11. Hong, Henry Y.
12. Huang, Eaton S.
13. Jadhav, Nikita S.
14. Jain, Aryan
15. Jiang, Jason B.
16. Ka, Emma
17. Kang, Priscilla S.
18. Karthik, Aditi
19. Kwong, Dylan R.
20. Lankipalle, Aryaditya
21. Lee, Grace K.
22. Lee, Jia
23. Light, William I.
24. Lo, Isabelle
25. Long, Sherry
26. Nair, Lakshmi P.
27. Nalabotu, Keerthi
28. Pandey, Simran
29. Prakash, Mihir
30. Rim, Aiden
31. Sivaraman, Neha
32. Wang, Craig
33. Wang, Marina B.
34. Wang, Tony Z.
35. Yang, Yi
36. Yu, Emerson J.

FROM FOOTHILL HIGH SCHOOL:

1. Dong, Isabel E.
2. George, Zachary P.
3. George, Zachary P.
4. Guan, Lauryn K.
5. Gupta, Yash
6. Gurha, Arnav
7. Joo, Caleb M.
8. Kim, Annabelle S.
9. Kim, Mina
10. Krishna, Arya
11. Kuo, Ejean E.
12. Lin, Marvin L.
13. Mundhra, Siddhi
14. Na, Youngseo
15. Peng, William
16. Phan, Jasmine T.
17. Saravanakumar, Arvind
18. Shah, Ishani
19. Shukla-Parekh, Anand R.
20. Srinivasa Raghavan, Sujanaa
21. Wan, Karen
22. Wu, Ryan
23. Xu, Claire
24. Yim, Jae Man
25. Zhang, Colin

HOME-SCHOOL STUDENTS:

1. Chen, Alexa N.
2. Lee, Justin D.

Congrats to the scholars!

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