San Ramon Students Win National Merit Scholarships

SAN RAMON, CA — Eshwar Chandrasekhar and Ryaken Nakamoto, both of Dougherty Valley High School, joined a growing list of San Ramon students who have received National Merit Scholarships.

Chandrasekhar and Nakamoto were awarded the National Merit University of Maryland Scholarship and the National Merit Northeastern University Scholarship, respectively. They were two of the 3,000 college-sponsored awards that provide between $500 and $2,500 annually to students who plan to attend that university.

Chandrasekhar said in an NMSC news release that he plans to study aerospace engineering, while Nakamoto hopes to study computer science.

In 2023, 153 colleges and universities are sponsoring over 3,800 Merit Scholarship awards. In 2023, a total of 7,140 students across the students received a total of nearly $28 million in aid, according to the National Merit Scholarship Corporation.

Anneka Lupinek, a recent graduate of San Ramon Valley High School, was the other SRVUSD student to receive the most recent batch of college-sponsored scholarships.

In 2023, a total of eight students from San Ramon, and 12 students from SRVUSD, received the prestigious scholarship.

Students were entered into the National Merit Scholarship competition as juniors taking the PSAT in 2021. In September, around 16,000 semifinalists were named based on each state's proportion of graduating seniors. Semifinalists were the top-scoring entrants in their states and represent fewer than one percent of high school seniors in the United States.

To be considered for finalist status, semifinalists had to submit a detailed scholarship application with an essay and details on extracurricular activities, awards, and leadership positions as well as demonstrate an outstanding academic record and have an endorsement from a high school official. Around 15,000 finalists met the requirements for finalist status and were eligible to be chosen for corporate-sponsored, National Merit Scholarship-sponsored and college-sponsored awards.