166 National Merit Semifinalists In The Hudson Valley

HUDSON VALLEY, NY — The National Merit Scholarship Corporation announced the names of over 16,000 semifinalists in the 68th annual National Merit Scholarship Program Wednesday, including 166 from high schools in the Hudson Valley.

These high school seniors have an opportunity to continue in the competition for some 7,250 National Merit Scholarships worth nearly $28 million that will be offered next spring.

They entered the 2023 National Merit Scholarship Program as juniors by taking the 2021 Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test (PSAT/NMSQT®), which served as an initial screen of program entrants. The group, representing less than one percent of U.S. high school seniors, includes the highest-scoring entrants in each state.

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

To be considered for a Merit Scholarship® award, semifinalists must fulfill several requirements to advance to the Finalist level of the competition. About 95 percent of the semifinalists are expected to attain finalist standing, and about half of the finalists will win a National Merit Scholarship, earning the Merit Scholar® title.

Ardsley

ARDSLEY H. S.

• Win, Zarni K.

Armonk

BYRAM HILLS H. S.

• Cherry, Ethan R.
• Fairbanks, Alaska Y.
• Kahn, Alexander E.
• Kumar, Mihir A.
• Matza, Remi P.
• Milewicz, Samantha M.
• Vaquero, Kelsey A.
• Weil, Clara S.

Bedford

FOX LANE H. S.

• Feldman, Jacob E.

Brewster

BREWSTER H. S.

• Filmer, Dylan R.

Briarcliff Manor

BRIARCLIFF H. S.

• Kim, Tevin
• Kung, Annabelle D.
• Wancier, Ryan J.

Bronxville

BRONXVILLE H. S.

• Burgin, Wilder
• Fenner, Isabela K.
• Freeman, Jeremy C.
• Mellinghoff, Remi A.
• Pal-Yadav, Aarna
• Sung, Loufei

Central Valley

MONROE WOODBURY H. S.

• Miller, Olivia

Chappaqua

HORACE GREELEY H. S.

• Cao, Daphne M.
• Duesterwald, Lea
• Easwaran, Netra
• Fang, Patrick B.
• Flannery, John
• Goel, Devisi
• Googel, Carly D.
• Lo, Elvin
• Paley, Gabriel
• Reddy, Siri M.
• Sun, Julia
• Xiang, Justin
• Yang, Amy Z.

Cortlandt

WALTER PANAS H. S.

• Gale-Donnelly, Sabbia Bijou

Cross River

JOHN JAY H. S.

• Klettner, Joseph A.
• O'Donnell, Michael W.

Croton-on-Hudson

CROTON - HARMON H. S.

• Bretas, Kate

Dobbs Ferry

DOBBS FERRY H. S.

• Dadina, Cyrus R.

THE MASTERS SCHOOL

• Dundas, Eleanor R.
• Eisenbeis, Ana Lucia
• Sokolenko, Viktoriia

Eastchester

EASTCHESTER H. S.

• Ramos, Antonio Samuel
• Zou, Zhuoyi

TUCKAHOE H. S.

• Kaufman, Jessica R.
• Swenson, Andrew M.

Harrison

HARRISON H. S.

• Blackman, Ariella M.

Hastings-on-Hudson

HASTINGS H. S.

• Anderson, Emilia J.
• Painter, Liam J.
• Renzin, Gus T.

Hopewell Junction

JOHN JAY H. S.

• Leobandung, Nathan S.

Irvington

IRVINGTON H. S.

• Liu, Ryan
• Oley, James E.
• Yun, Seungchan

Kingston

KINGSTON H. S.

• O'Dwyer, Eleanor E.

LaGrangeville

ARLINGTON H. S.

• Poon, Briana T.

Mamaroneck

FRENCH AMERICAN SCHOOL OF NEW YORK

• Bessin, Julien M.
• Xiao, Ran

MAMARONECK H. S.

• Anderson, William D.
• Snyder, Reilly J.
• Sukhatme, Marco H.
• Yoon, Kendall H.

RYE NECK H. S.

• Nashelsky, Dillon R.
• West, Ronan

Montrose

HENDRICK HUDSON H. S.

• Chen, Brendan Z.
• Schaffer, Alexandra M.

New Paltz

NEW PALTZ CENTRAL H. S.

• Lai, Caleb K.

New Rochelle

NEW ROCHELLE H. S.

• Petrovic, Momir I.

URSULINE SCHOOL

• Cain, Jenna M.
• Lahiff, Kelly A.

New Windsor

CORNWALL CENTRAL H. S.

• Gagnon, Morgan E.
• Liba, Karina E.

Newburgh

NEWBURGH FREE ACADEMY

• Shah, Aarav

Orangetown

TAPPAN ZEE H. S.

• O'Keefe, Caterina M.
• Regina, Livia A.
• Tobin, Matthew R.

Ossining

OSSINING H. S.

• Davis, Samara K.
• Irons, Jacob S.

Pawling

PAWLING H. S.

• Garbarino, Magnolia A.
• Mascia, Evan J.

Pearl River

PEARL RIVER H. S.

• Onishi, Claire M.

Pelham

PELHAM MEMORIAL H. S.

• Brady, Leila P.
• Brandler, Katie
• Chang, Victor A.
• Meyerson, Julia M.
• Sasson, Adina I.

Poughkeepsie

OAKWOOD FRIENDS SCHOOL

• Brooks, Trevor W.

SPACKENKILL H. S.

• Shahani, Jeet

Rye

RYE COUNTRY DAY SCHOOL

• Borkar, Ronen
• Duffy, Allison L.
• Fang, Sabrina
• Kern, Adam J.
• Kim, Lauren E.
• Larsen, Hans A.
• Lee, Elizabeth
• Mahoney, William
• Malik, Rohan
• Mathias, Benjamin A.
• Merrill, Sydney L.
• Pil, Archer P.
• Srinivasan, Raghav
• Sullivan, Luke
• Zhao, Ruth

RYE H. S.

• Cabrera, Julia G.
• Pagen, Cassidy J.
• Waters, Elizabeth H.

Scarsdale

EDGEMONT H. S.

• Agarwal, Samika
• Alexander, Justin P.
• Gurumurthy, Skandan
• Hu, Julia
• Kumar, Aarya J.
• Lim, Chaemin
• Litvak, David I.
• Sandhu, Rajan S.
• Savla, Raj
• Shane, Andrew D.
• Wong, Vivien F.
• Yang, Maxwell F.

SCARSDALE H. S.

• Barotz, Matthew
• Chou, Claire
• Dedianous, Cindy Y.
• Diao, David
• Dilorenzo, Thomas D.
• El Moselhy, Ali
• Fielding, Jackson
• Frank, Isabella
• Gelles, Carly S.
• Hong, Oliver S.
• Kumar, Anushka
• Lau, Mason Y.
• Lee, Hyunjin
• Liu, Amelia
• Liu, Olivia
• Luo, Emily-Jane
• Marks, Michael
• Michael, Colin H.
• Nudelman, Amanda D.
• Shi, Bryan
• Shi, Katherine
• Shiloach, Noa S.
• Su, Steven C.
• Wang, Emily Q.
• Wang, Hannah Y.
• Yacoub, Benjamin P.
• Zhang, Maxwell
• Zhao, Matthew

Shrub Oak

LAKELAND H. S.

• Agarwal, Garv

Somers

JOHN F. KENNEDY CATHOLIC H. S.

• Horan, James

Suffern

SUFFERN H. S.

• Bethon, Emma
• Jaffee, Miles E.

Tarrytown

HACKLEY SCHOOL

• Lattimore, Ava P.
• Sharma, Advith
• Warm, Hudson P.
• Yu, Steven S.

ThornwoodE. F. ACADEMY

• Nam, Yoonje

West Nyack

CLARKSTOWN H. S. SOUTH

• Sharma, Diya

White Plains

WHITE PLAINS H. S.

• Brown, Patrick D.
• Deng, Rongjie J.
• Kris, Milo
• Nguyen, Vinn
• Watanabe, Kei
• Watanabe, Yuki

Yonkers

YONKERS H. S.

• Dourmashkin, Leah
• Tan, Mattjoshua

Yorktown

YORKTOWN H. S.

• Kitts, Spencer E.
• Sheinin, Daniel

To become a Finalist, the Semifinalist and a high school official must submit a detailed
scholarship application, in which they provide information about the Semifinalist’s academic record, participation in school and community activities, demonstrated leadership abilities, employment, and honors and awards received. A Semifinalist must have an outstanding academic record throughout high school, be endorsed and recommended by a high school offi cial, write an essay, and earn SAT® or ACT® scores that confirm the student’s earlier performance on the qualifying test.

From over 16,000 Semifinalists, more than 15,000 are expected to advance to the Finalist
level, and in February they will be notified of this designation. All National Merit Scholarship
winners will be selected from this group of Finalists. Merit Scholar designees are selected on the
basis of their skills, accomplishments, and potential for success in rigorous college studies, without regard to gender, race, ethnic origin, or religious preference.