Meet 'A.C.' Racine's Lone National Merit Scholarship Finalist

MOUNT PLEASANT, WI — 17-year-old Case High School senior Achintya Krishnan describes himself as a person who is friendly, likes to make a lot of jokes, and have fun.

He's got some of his favorite hip hop on his iPod, plays varsity soccer and his friends call him A.C. for short.

But don't let this young gentleman's lighthearted nature fool you — he's one of the city's top students and is also Racine Unified School District's lone National Merit Scholarship Semi-Finalist.

About 1.6 million juniors in more than 22,000 high schools took the PSAT last year, and the national pool of semifinalists represents less than 1 percent of all U.S. high school seniors.

Of the 16,000 semifinalists, about 15,000 will become finalists, and among them, roughly 7,500 will receive some form of scholarship through the program.

"Becoming a 2018 National Merit Scholarship semi-finalist speaks highly of Achintya's high academic aptitude and achievement. As one of only 217 Wisconsin high school students receiving this prestigious honor, Achintya is truly a leader and a scholar among his peers," Racine Unified School District Superintendent Lolli Haws said. "We all admire and respect his hard work and how he has taken advantage of the opportunuties our students have to thrive and excel in RUSD schools."

As a Senior, A.C. is taking a full slate of International Baccalaureate courses, heavy on study. Classes, such as advanced biology, history, math, senior literature and "fun" electives such as sociology and principals of biomedical science round out his course load.

But he is really interested in the field of physics.

"It's actually a cool story, when I was around six, my parents got me a children's book about space, and though it was basically a book with some facts in it, I loved reading it," he said. "Back then, that's when I knew what I wanted to do with my life, and I've stuck by that career path."

A.C. is considering five schools: Stanford, Cal Tech, UW-Madison, Minnesota and Illinois.

But before any far-flung futures in physics, A.C. has hours of homework tonight. Homecoming's coming up, and college application essays await.

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