35 Hudson Valley Seniors Win 2020 National Merit Scholarships

HUDSON VALLEY, NY — The National Merit Scholarship Corporation announced this year's National Merit $2,500 Scholarship winners on Wednesday. The designees were chosen from a talent pool of more than 15,000 outstanding finalists in the 2018 National Merit Scholarship Program, and 35 of them are from the Hudson Valley.

On April 22, more than 1,000 recipients of corporate-sponsored Merit Scholarship awards were named, including eight from Rockland and Westchester counties. On June 3 and July 13, some 4,100 college-sponsored Merit Scholarship winners will be announced.

By the conclusion of the 2020 competition, about 7,600 Finalists will have been selected to receive National Merit Scholarships totaling over $30 million.

Local students winning Merit Scholarships in this second round:

• Isha S. Brahmbhatt-Ardsley High School. Probable career field: Public Health
• Daniel S. de Castro-Briarcliff High School. Probable career field: Finance
• Sabrina Mellinghoff-Bronxville High School. Probable career field: Public Health
• Arden M. Katz-Horace Greeley High School, Chappaqua. Probable career field: Engineering
• David J. Brodsky of Cortlandt Manor. Probable career field: Computer Science
• Amaavi Miriyagalla-Walter Panas High School, Cortlandt. Probable career field: Healthcare
• James P. Reilly-Hendrick Hudson High School, Cortlandt. Probable career field: Medicine
• Sydney K. Jessup-Goshen High School. Probable career field: Law
• Adriana I. Palmieri-Irvington High School. Probable career field: Biology
• Gabrielle F. Dobkin of Larchmont-Mamaroneck High School. Probable career field: Biochemical Engineering
• Jesse M. Ward of Larchmont-Mamaroneck High School. Probable career field: Politics
• Nico A. Santamaria-Mamaroneck High School. Probable career field: Physics
• Jacob H. Miller of Mount Kisco-Horace Greeley High School, Chappaqua. Probable career field: International Relations
• Kenneth Glen Poor of Mount Kisco-Fox Lane High School, Bedford. Probable career field: Biomedical Engineering
• Alec Y. Xiang of Mount Kisco-Horace Greeley High School, Chappaqua. Probable career field: Computer Science
• Alexander F. Nikac-Nanuet High School. Probable career field: Biology
• George J. Eliadis-Newburgh Free Academy. Probable career field: Renewable Energy
• Wells Willett-New Paltz Central High School. Probable career field: Environmental Engineering
• Abigail Kazakov New Rochelle High School. Probable career field: Medicine
• Kirin D. Mueller of Palisades-Dwight-Englewood School. Probable career field: Linguistics
• Andrew V. DiFabbio of Patterson-Brewster High School. Probable career field: Physics
• Theodore A. DeGuzman of Poughkeepsie-Our Lady of Lourdes High School. Probable career field: Mechanical Engineering
• Maeve A. Janecka of Purdys-Somers High School. Probable career field: Medicine
• Lauryn Weintraub of Rye Brook-Blind Brook High School. Probable career field: Public Policy
• Malhaar Agrawal of Scarsdale-Horace Mann School. Probable career field: Anthropology
• Vladimir A. Asriev-Scarsdale High School. Probable career field: Computer Science
• Anika S. Dhuri-Scarsdale High School. Probable career field: Biology
• David Peng-Scarsdale High School. Probable career field: Physics
• Rohan C. Shah of Scarsdale. Edgemont High School. Probable career field: Law
• Max Yang-Scarsdale High School. Probable career field: Neurology
• Sarah E. Clayton-Sleepy Hollow High School. Probable career field: Screenwriting/Directing
• Aidan M. Bele of Warwick-Don Bosco Preparatory High School, Ramsey. Probable career field: Computer Science
• Matthew Z. Cooper of West Harrison-Harrison High School. Probable career field: Economics
• Uriel M. Korin-White Plains High School. Probable career field: Mathematics
• Ethan Jeon-Yorktown High School. Probable career field: Neuroscience

More than 1.5 million juniors in 21,000 high schools entered the 2020 National Merit Scholarship Program when they took the 2018 Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test, which served as an initial screen of program entrants. In September 2019, some 16,000 Semifinalists were designated on a state-representational basis in numbers proportional to each state's percentage of the national total of graduating high school seniors. Semifinalists were the highest-scoring program entrants in each state and represented less than 1 percent of the nation's seniors.

SEE ALSO: 8 HV Students Win 2020 Corporate-Sponsored Merit Scholarships