18 From Brentwood High, 16 From Ravenwood Named National Merit Finalists

BRENTWOOD, TN — A record-setting 45 Williamson County Schools students were named as National Merit Finalists this week, including 18 from Brentwood High School and 16 from Ravenwood.

The Finalists are competing for 7,600 National Merit Scholarships which will be offered this spring. High school students enter the National Merit Program by taking the Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test. For more schools coverage and breaking alerts about news that affects you, click here to subscribe to the Brentwood Patch, or find your local Middle Tennessee Patch here.

To become a Finalist, the Semifinalist and his or her high school 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 received.

All winners of Merit Scholarship awards are chosen from the Finalist group based on their abilities, skills and accomplishments. A variety of information is used during the evaluation process including the Finalist’s academic record, information about the school’s curricula and grading system, two sets of test scores, the high school official’s written recommendation, information about the student’s activities and leadership and the Finalist’s own essay.

The Finalists from Brentwood are:

• Andrew Brown
• Shirley Cai
• Sarah Dillender
• Matthew Donahue
• Abigail Ezell
• Riley Graves
• Joseph Gripenstraw
• Brooke Horesh
• Chriaag Kaushik
• Ajun Keerthi
• Sophie Khomtchenko
• Shreyas Kumar
• Justin Lambright
• Aleya Prasad
• Alexander Qin
• Richard Sheng
• Harry Westbrook
• Emma Young

From Ravenwood:

• Emily Brexa
• Jared Boggs
• Kurt Erickson
• Garrett Foran
• Cailyn Goodbred
• Theodore Grosson
• Preston Johnson
• Young-Rae Kim
• Ashley Klee
• Adriana Kurowski
• Jessica Mixon
• Jerry Lu
• Kathryn Rigsby
• Alexandra Plukis
• Daniel Nicastro
• Dalton Shaub

From the rest of Williamson County:

• David Price, Centennial
• Daniel Seifferth, Centennial
• Tian Geng, Franklin
• Kelli Kee, Franklin
• Caleb Patrick, Franklin
• Harold LaCroix, Independence
• Liam Spoletini, Independence
• Evelyn Teeple, Independence
• Evelyn Williams, Independence
• Olivia Snow, Page
• Hunter Spivey, Page

Image via Williamson County Schools