2 Escondido Students Named National Merit Scholarship Semifinalists

ESCONDIDO, CA — The National Merit Scholarship Corporation announced the names of more than 16,000 semifinalists in the 68th annual National Merit Scholarship Program, including two students in Escondido. Fewer than 1 percent of U.S. high school seniors are chosen as semifinalists in the prestigious competition.

The students are competing for 7,250 scholarships worth nearly $28 million to be awarded in multiple rounds next spring and summer.

These 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 them will go on to win a National Merit Scholarship.

The next step for the semifinalists and their schools is to submit a detailed scholarship application that includes their academic records, participation in school and community activities, demonstrated leadership abilities, employment, and honors and awards they've received. The student must also earn SAT or ACT scores that confirm their earlier performance on the qualifying test.

The scholarships are underwritten by National Merit's own funds and by approximately 340 business organizations, colleges and universities.

Semifinalists entered the competition as juniors by taking the 2021 Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test, which served as an initial screen for entrants. The number of semifinalists in each state is proportional to the state's percentage of the national total of graduating seniors.

Finalists will be notified in February.

Here is a list of the semifinalists in Escondido and San Diego County:

Carlsbad

Carlsbad High School:

• Watts, Nathaniel A.

La Costa Canyon High School:

• Donovan, Brendan J.

Sage Creek High School:

• Lu, Chloe
• Yoon, Erin J.

Chula Vista

Eastlake High School:

• Nassif, Anthony C.

Coronado

Coronado High School:

• Thoms, Evan M.

Encinitas

Homeschool:

• Glenn, Gavin R.

San Dieguito Academy:

• Kousser, William M.
• Manternach, Kyle D.
• Peng, Sijie
• Wang, Cyrene X.

Escondido

Classical Academy High School:

• Desoto, Zachary S.
• Lathrop, Austin T.

La Jolla

The Bishop's School

• An, Audrey L.
• Berger, Alexander J.
• Browne, Eli W.
• Chang, Annalise Y.
• Chen, Michelle A.
• Gutekunst, Daxton P.
• Jain, Jasper
• Kashyap, Ashir B.
• Keefe, William H.
• Leung, Kasie H.
• Lin, Abigail
• Malhotra, Niamh K.
• Nelson, Henry M.
• Price, Oliver L.
• Waldman, Nancy E.
• Wang, Katelyn Y.
• Xu, Daniel M.
• Xu, Shirley T.
• Zhang, Dorien X.
• Zhu, Emily K.

La Jolla Country Day School:

• Huo, Kyle L.
• Li, Jialin
• Yang, Erik H.
• Yang, Zitao

La Jolla High School:

• Chu, Isaac G.
• Kleinman, Aiden Sachiel
• MacDonald, William P.
• Nunes, Nicole R.
• Roberts, Arianna E.
• Yoon, Richard

Oceanside

El Camino High School:

• Hong, Christopher
• Mission Vista High School:
• Sharif, Robin S.

Poway

Poway High School:

• Bosworth, Rohan L.
• Hansen, Luke L.
• He, Lu
• Kim, Anna S.
• Tantuwaya, Evan

San Diego

Academy of Our Lady of Peace:

• Borossay, Isabel M.
• Kuhn, Sarah A.
• Lewton, Malia M.

Canyon Crest Academy:

• Agarkar, Sohan
• Anderson, Asya L.
• Bantval, Pranav
• Belford, Brittain A.
• Bruce, Isabel L.
• Chang, Renee S.
• Dai, Kelly H.
• Deng, Jonathan H.
• Do, Tyler H.
• Dong, Elaine F.
• Einbinder, Aron H.
• Finnegan, Lillia K.
• Goel, Shreya
• Ha, Justin
• Ho, Chelsea T.
• Kanodia, Anshi V.
• Kazmierowicz, Mark A.
• Kim, Kyle M.
• Kim, Tyler J.
• Lee, Annabelle J.
• Li, Andrew Z.
• Li, Grace L.
• Li, Michelle M.
• Liu, Yicheng
• Luo, Justin
• Muneer, Sofie
• Noto, Matthew
• Park, Andrew K.
• Shirazi, Dina E.
• Song, Hannah
• Song, Jacob N.
• Wang, Grace M.
• Wang, Justin Y.
• White, Owen A.
• Worms, Alexandra K.
• Wu, Yubo J.
• Xu, Danniell S.
• Xu, Lilian Y.
• Xu, Stephen F.
• Xue, Kevin
• Yang, Isabella Y.
• Zerboni, Dasha
• Zhang, Cynthia Y.
• Zhang, Holly J.
• Zhang, Noah
• Zhong, Evan Y.
• Zhou, Katherine T.
• Zhu, Riley J.

Del Norte High School:

• Annamalai, Meena
• Chakraborty, Adrita
• Crickard, Eva J.
• Dolan, Daniel P.
• Duggirala, Samhitha
• Duroiu, Christopher
• Griegel, Matthew A.
• Griegel, Michael E.
• Israel, Noah
• Ji, Alicia Q.
• Kim, Gina
• Lin, Jeffrey J.
• Meng, Joyce
• Ni, Chenxin
• Parmar, Hansi S.
• Pi, Nicole I.
• Samar, Sahil
• Sankaran, Shriya
• Su, Rebecca C.
• Tang, Alice K.
• Tang, Brian G.
• Trivedi, Hetvi N.
• Wright, Leonard A.
• Xu, Ellen
• Zeng, Audrey
• Zhang, Andrew Y.
• Zhang, Lucia N.

Homeschool:

• von Damm, Surina J.

Maranatha Christian Schools:

• Monroy, Matt P.

Mira Mesa High School:

• Phung, Sophie

Mount Carmel High School:

• Pearl, Noah S.
• Shi, Derek B.

Mount Everest Academy:

• Lai, Malvyn
• Rizo, Petunia T.

Francis Parker School:

• Chao, Celerina
• Douglas, Jack D.
• Dunn, Ethan A.
• Horne, Emma H.
• Kandhadai, Sree J.
• Omura, Keigo
• Shan, Jason M.
• Spiridonov, Maxwell R.
• Tyrrell-Knott, Sophia
• Wornovitzky, Natalia
• Zhou, Andrew Y.

Point Loma High School:

• Christian, Asher S.
• Johnson, Cady J.

Rancho Bernardo High School:

• Chong, Anna M.
• Radhakrishnan, Adarsh
• Saldivar, Michael A.
• Singh, Shreya
• Soliman, Christian A.
• Wernli, Joshua R.
• Xu, Wendy

San Diego High School of International Studies:

• Chamberlain, Samantha V.

Scripps Ranch High School:

• Chatterjee, Simone
• Chen, Ray
• Gubba, Shabdika
• Gurunath, Kavya
• He, Michael H.
• Lingampalli, Uday P.
• Liu, Albert
• Zhao, Kevin T.

Southern California Yeshiva High School:

• Dimenstein, Nethanel A.

St. Augustine High School:

• O'Leary, James P.

Torrey Pines High School:

• Gaut, Marissa
• Inamdar, Rohan
• Lin, Andrew
• Liu, Derek X.
• Rubtsova, Taisiya A.
• Song, William L.
• Su, Christopher L.
• Sun, Edward T.
• Tal, Ron E.
• Tsai, Andrew
• Tsu, Christine A.
• Wang, Adam Y.
• Wang, Annabelle A.
• Zhao, Aidan T.

University City High School:

• Cao, Jessy
• Ojutomori, Imani M.

Westview High School:

• Chen, Mia L.
• Chu, Andrew H.
• Chung, Anika Y.
• Deng, Daniel
• Ding, Jonathan Z.
• Gedela, Vishudh
• Gupta, Kavya
• Kannan, Anirudh S.
• O'Connor, Ava R.
• Shen, Sabrina J.
• Thakker, Krisha P.
• Wu, Justin Y.
• Yang, Madison I.
• Zhu, Connie Y.

San Marcos

Mission Hills High School:

• Bardhwaj, Ashwin
• San Marcos High School:
• Freeman, Malina G.