More than 200 Orange County high school students just made a pretty selective list. They are National Merit semifinalists.
On Wednesday, Sept. 14, the Evanston, Ill.-based National Merit Scholarship Corporation announced the names of more than 16,000 semifinalists competing nationally for nearly $28 million in scholarships that will be awarded next spring.
Northwood High School in the Irvine Unified School District boasted the highest number of honorees in Orange County: 37. University High, also in Irvine, had the second highest number with 27 semifinalists.
Schools with at least 10 winners were: Troy High School in Fullerton, Beckman High in Tustin Unified, Valencia High in Placentia, Portola High in Irvine, and the Orange County School of the Arts in Santa Ana. While the vast majority of students hail from public schools, some study at private schools, including 10 semifinalists from Sage Hill in Newport Beach.
Nearly all the students nationwide, about 95%, are expected to reach the status of “finalist,” and about half will win, earning the elite title of “Merit Scholar.”
How did the students get this far? They aced the Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test, which served to initially screen students. The semifinalists represent less than 1% of U.S. high school seniors, according to the non-profit organization that runs the program and raises the scholarship money.
The next step for the semifinalists, and high school officials, is to submit a detailed scholarship application with information that includes students’ academic record, school and community activities, an essay, and SAT or ACT scores that back up their high scores in the preliminary exam.
Here’s the list of semifinalists and the schools they attend:
ALISO VIEJO
ALISO NIGUEL H.S.
Anuskiewicz, Dylan J.
Besmonte, Gianna Ysabel C.
Jiang, Chelsea
ANAHEIM
ACACIAWOOD SCHOOL
Lee, Cyrus D.
CANYON H. S.
Barretto, Sebastian N.
Chon, Jason S.
ESPERANZA H. S.
Park, Chessa M.
FAIRMONT PREPARATORY ACADEMY
Huynh, Khiet L.
Pietrzkowski, Pola V.
Zhao-Ye, Luke X.
SERVITE H. S.
Foy, Alexander B.
COSTA MESA
WALDORF SCHOOL OF ORANGE COUNTY
Roussanova, Elena L.
CYPRESS
CYPRESS H. S.
Chung, Samuel Y.
OXFORD ACADEMY
Choi, Eugene E.
Li, Erika C.
Li, Sarah R.
Luthra, Rahil
Mehta, Viren D.
FOUNTAIN VALLEY
FOUNTAIN VALLEY H. S.
Phan, Brandon
FULLERTON
SUNNY HILLS H. S.
De Leon, Emmaline D.
Kiker, Thaddaeus J.
Lee, Daniel J.
Sung, Sharon
Yang, Kate E.
TROY H. S.
Basu, Tanuj A.
Choi, Tyler Nicholas C.
Dorman, Mathew E.
Ha, Soojong
Han, Yonghoon B.
Her, Audrey L.
Lim, Matthew T.
Liu, Natasha N.
Liu, Yating
Mathur, Mahak
Ni, Brian
Qian, William R.
Qiu, Bowen
Ryu, Brian P.
Shim, Jay J.
Shum, Elizabeth C.
Son, Sean S.
Sung, Joseph M.
Wei, Ethan C.
Winberg, Emilee Grace
Yoon, Pearl Z.
GARDEN GROVE
BOLSA GRANDE H. S.
Palm, Catherine
GARDEN GROVE H. S.
Nguyen, Kandice U.
Nguyen, Uyen
PACIFICA H. S.
Do, Anne N.
Guardino, Caden
Morris, Cayden
HUNTINGTON BEACH
EDISON H. S.
Bellinger, Wyatt D.
Kaylani, Logan B.
Vo, Adam T.
HUNTINGTON BEACH H. S.
Colangelo, Mia Lauren
Hayashi, Cooper J.
Pham, Jacob Q.
Pham, Lucas D.
OCEAN VIEW H. S.
Bae, Haley Ann
IRVINE
ARNOLD O. BECKMAN H. S.
Chen, Jeremy H.
Chia, Grace W.
Garcia, Andres E.
Jiang, Ellie R.
Kim, Andrew
Kim, Eunvin V.
Kim, Jenna D.
Lu, Aidan T.
Lu, Gerald Y.
Prasad, Subhash J.
Suh, Andrew J.
Tam, Ian W.
CREAN LUTHERAN H. S.
Im, Elena C.
Lee, Min Young
IRVINE H. S.
Bawa, Mannat K.
Chen, Charline
Petrovich, Erik S.
Rapp, Eli W.
Song, Brian
Weng, Allen H.
Zhao, Alana M.
NORTHWOOD H. S.
Arabandi, Snigdha
Bhagavan, Rohan D.
Cai, Olivia Y.
Chan, Ellie W.
Chang, Eugenie F.
Cheng, Zixiu
Dai, Austin W.
Deshpande, Bhargavi A.
Foo, Anthony W.
Garneni, Tanvi
Grover, Shaina
Gupta, Khushi
Halder, Shayan
How, Rachel E.
Kamat, Aniket S.
Kang, Jonathan M.
Kunta, Srijan R.
Lee, Ze Xi Isaac
Lin, Alexander F.
Mow, Kai
Mundra, Aditi
Nabaeighahroudi, Saba
Pan, Elaine
Pandey, Samagra
Park, Jonghoon
Penrod, Andrew
Rawal, Divit
Rhee, Kenneth K.
Sohn, Kevin J.
Subbaraman, Satvik H.
Suresh, Arjun S.
Tak, Aiden J.
Talebi Dolouei, Ilia
Verma, Aditya
Wang, Annabel
Xie, Felix
Zhao, Karen G.
PORTOLA H. S.
Badescu, Sydney W.
Cheong, Brian S.
Ding, Cindy L.
Jong, Kyle E.
Ko, Lindsey Y.
Kumar, Satyajit M.
Nguyen, Thomas M.
Ruminson, Elisabeth A.
Sharma, Arnav
Shetty, Nihar N.
SAN JOAQUIN H. S.
Mittal, Aryan
TARBUT V’TORAH COMMUNITY DAY SCHOOL
Peddie, Adam
UNIVERSITY H. S.
Chen, Joshua M.
Fan, Benjamin A.
Gan, Benlin
Gong, Eric J.
Gunawardhana, Siara S.
Howery, Anabel
Jia, Wanqi
Ke, Andrew W.
Kimm, Alexander D.
Liao, Caitlyn A.
Min, Sarang
Peng, Max W.
Qin, Andre Y.
Sarkar, Adalmina K.
Shen, Aniyah X.
Su, June S.
Tassinari, Bree E.
Trinh, Minh H.
Wang, Ruijia
Wang, Samuel R.
Wang, Yihan
Wu, Katherine J.
Yang, Ashley
Yang, Haolin
Yates, Charles
Yeung, Amber W.
Zhou, Chunyi
WOODBRIDGE H. S.
Ferrero, Avery L.
Gov, Nathan M.
Kim, Brandon Y.
Peng, Amber L.
Suh, Nicholas P.
Sun, Deena Q.
LA HABRA
WHITTIER CHRISTIAN H. S.
Qiu, James
Song, Joseph
LAGUNA BEACH
LAGUNA BEACH H. S.
303 Machiraju, Sai K.
LAKE FOREST
EL TORO H. S.
Chi, Jonathan
LOS ALAMITOS
LOS ALAMITOS H. S.
Li, Tina M.
MISSION VIEJO
TRABUCO HILLS H. S.
Amineni, Harika
Stuvland, Claire D.
NEWPORT BEACH
CORONA DEL MAR H. S.
Bist, Aashvi N.
Bist, Marisa N.
Davis, Nicole J.
Long, Phillip N.
Pham, Tyler K.
Ward, Rachel M.
Zhou, Beyonce S.
NEWPORT HARBOR H. S.
Ancone, Gia G.
Wanlass, Kent A.
SAGE HILL SCHOOL
Ball, Ethan F.
Chung, Aidan
Du, Andy Q.
He, Elaine H.
Jin, Clifford
McNeill, Carson J.
Montgomery, Alexandra R.
Sun, Chenchen
Tseng, Celine
Xie, Xinyi
ORANGE
ORANGE LUTHERAN H. S.
Khanbeigi, Scarlett R.
PLACENTIA
EL DORADO H. S.
Ordonez, Livia R.
PARKVIEW H. S.
Kim, Tyler S.
VALENCIA H. S.
Bhalodia, Rohan R.
Chao, Jonathan W.
Chen, Dylan A.
Hong, Calvin
Ives, Camille E.
Jeon, Junhyuk
Kim, Joseph A.
Mo, Jason E.
Nguyen, Nathan T.
Pagaza, Brooklyn R.
Park, Mancheon
Simon, Ruth S.
RANCHO SANTA MARGARITA
SANTA MARGARITA CATHOLIC H. S.
Dorgan, Nicholas P.
Jones, Daniel M.
Kim, Sean
Lee, Katharine J.
Mahjoob, Darius R.
TESORO H. S.
Breuer, Zachary E.
Khajehmiraki, Fardean
Li, Yi-Ning J.
Lin, Melody M.
Royle, Mason D.
SAN JUAN CAPISTRANO
J SERRA CATHOLIC H. S.
Paulson, Sydney R.
SAN JUAN HILLS H. S.
Lau, Kent J.
Warner, Rachel D.
ST. MARGARET’S EPISCOPAL SCHOOL
Kenny, Alexander
Lee, Jonathan J.
Mai, Tina
Matthew, Kathryn K.
McGregor, Aili H.
Momtaz, Nadia
Varkevisser, Luciana
SANTA ANA
FOOTHILL H. S.
van der Hoek, Anne Marie
Werdel, Dylan K.
ORANGE COUNTY SCHOOL OF THE ARTS
Hodge, Ashley M.
Jang, Yoojung
Jo, Yoojin
Khauv, Amber K.
Li, Grant
Parigela, Sarah
Qin, Joshua Z.
Son, Clara J.
Wong, Allison C.
Wu, Evan
VILLA PARK
VILLA PARK H. S.
Kuo, Jordyn J.
YORBA LINDA
YORBA LINDA H. S.
Yang, Tyler B.
Yoon, Tanner S.
Click here for semifinalists in Los Angeles County or here for those in Riverside and San Bernardino counties.
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