8 Naperville Students Earn National Merit Scholarships

NAPERVILLE, IL — Another round of National Merit Scholarship recipients has been unveiled, including eight students from Naperville.

These students were among 7,500 students nationwide to receive the coveted scholarships in 2022. The most recent 2022 National Merit Scholars from Naperville are:

• Patrick Aabram, of Naperville Central High School, who plans to study software engineering at University of South Florida
• Ian M. Altekruse, of Metea Valley High School, who plans to study actuarial science at Drake University
• Jihoon Baek, of Naperville North High School, who plans to study international law at Vanderbilt University
• Christina X. Goo, of Naperville North High School, who plans to study dentistry at University of Texas
• David Ho, of Waubonsie Valley High School, who plans to study computer science at University of Southern California
• Mohammad Ahmad A. Khan, of Naperville North High School, who plans to study actuarial science at University of Texas at Dallas
• Karisa A. Liaw, of Naperville Central High School, who plans to study medicine at Case Western Reserve University
• Brian Lu, of Naperville Central High School, who plans to study computer engineering at Purdue University

Scholarship recipients were chosen from a pool of 15,000 finalists who initially qualified as semifinalists based on their scores on the Preliminary SAT and National Merit Qualifying tests. Finalists were evaluated on their test scores, academic records and a personal essay detailing their awards, their involvement in leadership roles, extracurricular activities and more.

In May, eight other Naperville students were recognized in an earlier round of National Merit Scholarship finalists.