NATIONAL MERIT SCHOLARSHIP CORPORATION

1560 Sherman Avenue, Suite 200, Evanston, Illinois 60201-4897 (847) 866-5100

SEMIFINALISTS IN THE 2018

NATIONAL MERIT SCHOLARSHIP PROGRAM
September 13, 2017 Announcement

Contact: Eileen Artemakis or Matthew Budreau Phone: (847) 866-5100

Public Information Email: mediainfo@nmerit.net
Website: www.nationalmerit.org

Advance: For release on Wednesday, September 13, 2017

Note to editors: Semifinalists in your state are listed alphabetically by city and
high school following this press release.
This material is prepared solely for news media to announce the names of
Semifinalists; its use for any other purpose is prohibited.

Caution: Using numbers of Semifinalists to compare high schools, educational systems, or

states will result in erroneous conclusions. The National Merit Scholarship Program honors
individual students who show exceptional academic ability and potential for success in rigorous
college studies. The program does not measure the quality or effectiveness of education within a
school, system, or state. For more information about the competition, please visit NMSCs website
at www.nationalmerit.org.

Semifinalists in the 2018 National Merit Scholarship Program

(Evanston, Illinois) Today officials of National Merit Scholarship Corporation (NMSC)

announced the names of approximately 16,000 Semifinalists in the 63rd annual National Merit
Scholarship Program. These academically talented high school seniors have an opportunity to
continue in the competition for some 7,500 National Merit Scholarships worth more than $32
million that will be offered next spring. To be considered for a Merit Scholarship award,
Semifinalists must fulfill several requirements to advance to the Finalist level of the competition.
About 90 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.

NMSC, a not-for-profit organization that operates without government assistance, was

established in 1955 specifically to conduct the annual National Merit Scholarship Program.
Scholarships are underwritten by NMSC with its own funds and by approximately 420 business
organizations and higher education institutions that share NMSCs goals of honoring the nations
scholastic champions and encouraging the pursuit of academic excellence.

-more-
Add one
Semifinalists in the 2018 National Merit Scholarship Program

Steps in the 2018 Competition

About 1.6 million juniors in more than 22,000 high schools entered the 2018 National Merit
Scholarship Program by taking the 2016 Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying
Test (PSAT/NMSQT ), which served as an initial screen of program entrants. The nationwide pool
of Semifinalists, 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 states
percentage of the national total of graduating seniors.

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 Semifinalists 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 through-
out high school, be endorsed and recommended by a high school official, write an essay, and earn
SAT scores that confirm the students earlier performance on the qualifying test.

From the approximately 16,000 Semifinalists, about 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.
National Merit Scholarships
Three types of National Merit Scholarships will be offered in the spring of 2018.
Every Finalist will compete for one of 2,500 National Merit $2500 Scholarships that will be
awarded on a state-representational basis. About 1,000 corporate-sponsored Merit Scholarship
awards will be provided by approximately 230 corporations and business organizations for
Finalists who meet their specified criteria, such as children of the grantors employees or residents
of communities where sponsor plants or offices are located. In addition, about 190 colleges and
universities are expected to finance some 4,000 college-sponsored Merit Scholarship awards
for Finalists who will attend the sponsor institution.

National Merit Scholarship winners of 2018 will be announced in four nationwide news
releases beginning in April and concluding in July. These scholarship recipients will join more
than 330,000 other distinguished young people who have earned the Merit Scholar title.

# # #

National Merit, Merit Scholarship, Merit Scholar, and the corporate Lamp of Learning logo are federally registered service marks of
National Merit Scholarship Corporation. PSAT/NMSQT is a registered trademark of National Merit Scholarship Corporation and the College Board.
SAT is a registered trademark of the College Board.
Semifinalists: 2018 National 882
450
French, Johnston W.
Horton, Jack E.
CLIFTON
CENTREVILLE H. S.
450 Kambhampaty, Jayaprakash D. 450 Dettmer, Andrew P.
Merit Scholarship Program 455
450
McCracken, Benjamin
Meade, Kerry R.
450 Kim, Nathan J.
200 Lee, Andrew J.
628 Wieland, Lillian C. 999 Lee, Jenny
628 Yu, Christine J.
YORKTOWN H. S.
160 Briere, Reagan E. CULPEPER
Liu, Ethan J.
VIRGINIA 450
522 Liu, Timothy
999 Close, Cassius G.
000 Discenza, Elizabeth A.
CULPEPER COUNTY H. S.
941 Montgomery, Sydney B.
301 Lord, Maxwell Q. 999 Golovaha-Hicks, William B.
ALDIE 843 Lulushi, Anna EASTERN VIEW H. S.
JOHN CHAMPE H. S. 161 Ly, Jessica T. ASHBURN 166 Yi, Caroline J.
160 Ford, Lauren H. 722 Ma, Rachel BRIAR WOODS H. S.
450 Forstner, Peter H. 303 Maribojoc, Matthew D. 943 Maloney, Sydney P.
999 Min, Madeleine S. DALEVILLE
450 Lam, Quang N. LORD BOTETOURT H. S.
710 Oh, Samuel J. 628 Modh, Jainam H. BROAD RUN H. S.
999 Mosur, Varun V. 457 Parnell, Maria A.
000 Campbell, Samuel
950 Murphy-Neilson, Anthony J. 000 George, Anna E.
ALEXANDRIA 843 Musk, William DUMFRIES
HOMESCHOOL 000 Wong, Sophie M.
454 Nam, Henna S. ST. JOHN PAUL THE GREAT
467 Best, Eli R.
833 Nolan, Liam ROCK RIDGE H. S. CATHOLIC H. S.
185 Ogbonna, Ikechukwu 000 Krishnan, Santosh S. 000 Hong, Young-Ghee
BISHOP IRETON H. S. 461 Omais, Wassim
301 Hoagland, Braden C. 000 Randev, Rishika
628 Pan, Richard B. FAIRFAX
450 Patel, Mihir V. STONE BRIDGE H. S. FAIRFAX H. S.
THOMAS JEFFERSON H. S. FOR 301 Pathi, Ashwin S.
SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY 843 Helmrath, William P. 303 Fried, David
836 Peng, Alex J. 451 Kim, Cody J.
303 Alam, Anjam I. 185 Qin, Jiaxuan
164 Ali, Nadia F. 455 Poisson, Owen P. NEW SCHOOL OF
459 Quan, Emily 121 Shorey, Julie F.
628 Alladi, Bharath K. 301 Rajan, Rahul NORTHERN VIRGINIA
160 Baek, Seungwon 254 Cohen, Yael M.
303 Ray, Soham
185 Baraya, Naman 628 Rekulapelli, Akhil BLACKSBURG
790 Begotka, Nicholas L. 161 Rentia, Uzma BLACKSBURG H. S. JAMES W. ROBINSON
451 Bergman, Matthew J. 303 Dehoff, Ethan T. SECONDARY SCHOOL
302 Sahaya Arul, Joshua
300 Bevara, Saiteja 454 Ladd, Shay L. 000 Bhatnagar, Siddharth
837 Saraswathula, Varun
185 Bikmal, Saket 303 Lee, Juhyoung 830 Taft, William W.
301 Sardana, Nikhil
628 Budharaju, Karthik 773 Martin, Spencer T. 830 Van Dyke, Julia K.
628 Sarkar, Aditya
450 Budzien, My-Linh C. 467 Shewchuk, John A.
302 Saxena, Nikita
467 Carter, Vincent 454 Sheft, Maxina R. TRINITY CHRISTIAN SCHOOL
628 Chappidi, Shreya 450 Shen, Edward BURKE 520 Grace, Rachel E.
900 Chen, Nathan 600 Shenoy, Arpitha Y. LAKE BRADDOCK
894 Cho, Kelly 741 Singh, Aaditya K. SECONDARY SCHOOL W. T. WOODSON H. S.
000 Cho, Philip N. 628 Soldozy, Kamron 833 Jones, Sinclaire E. 457 Chang, Hyung Tae
185 Christensen, Soren K. 300 Spencer, William E. 773 Nguyen, Amanda R. 457 Huh, Andrew
457 Ciccoretti, Quinn 467 Srinivasan, Arvind S. 160 Smith, Elizabeth R. 208 Pedulla-Smith, Diego
450 Covey, Margaret 200 Sriram, Tarunikha 451 Smith, Eric F. 999 Ruffner, Kelly M.
999 Das, Rounak 830 Stepniczka, Michael T. 999 Ruffner, Morgan A.
999 Deng, Eric Z. 303 Subramanian, Vandana CHANTILLY 700 Schneider, Kate A.
300 Desruelle, Leo 843 Sun, William B. CHANTILLY H. S. 204 Zhang, Rachel H.
999 Do, Wonwook 171 Suri, Sadhana 300 Batori, Adam A.
999 Du, Adelia Y. 459 Ter Martirosyan, Sarkis M. 999 Cao, Alvin
500 Du, Katherine C. 450 Liu, Peter
FALLS CHURCH
303 Thistlethwaite, Neil D. GEORGE C. MARSHALL H. S.
843 Gao, William Y. 999 Tian, Frank X. 303 Pelczynski, Benton J.
450 Gatesman, Kyle J. 121 Church, Oliver F.
450 Valluri, Rohan 550 Rothleder, Eli E.
628 Goykhberg, Joanna M. 723 Daniel, Donald G.
999 Vattikonda, Niharika 160 Huffman, Mikayla R.
450 Gudavalli, Juhi 467 Veizi, Artemis HOMESCHOOL
300 Guo, Kevin 999 Karachunsky, Isaac M.
200 Wan, Keely J. 553 Young, Mary Clare T.
628 Haldankar, Tanvi 450 Martin, Grant P.
301 Wang, Andrew 166 Waters, Holly F.
306 Han, Timothy X. 553 Wang, Emily A. WESTFIELD H. S.
303 Hatcher, Caroline W. 628 Yu, Shaun
741 Wang, Franklyn 457 Johnson, Celi C.
000 He, Emily M. 300 Wang, Jade 900 Joiner, Mason C.
451 Hoganson, William 302 Wang, Lilian 712 Mittal, Aditi GEORGE MASON H. S.
000 Hollinger, Grant H. 300 Wang, Yuyang 522 Shankle, Hayley 803 Miller, David L.
300 Homnyom, Natalie O. 836 Welman, Millan F.
450 Huang, Charles 300 Xiao, James J. E. B. STUART H. S.
999 Hwang, Minyoung C.
CHARLOTTESVILLE
999 Xie, Sherry T. ALBEMARLE H. S. 628 Tran, Vivian N.
999 Jain, Amiti 306 Xun, Ruiran 450 Gao, Haochen
171 Jain, Paarth 999 Yan, David J. FALMOUTH
185 Greenstone, Hailey L.
301 Jain, Sachin 454 Yanambakkam, Pranav STAFFORD H. S.
740 Merone, William B.
301 Jiang, Christopher H. 303 Yang, Daniel 628 Lambert, Philip J.
000 Pastore, Angela C.
999 Johann, Olivia 171 Yang, Katherine S. 454 Shetty, Arghya J.
999 Judish, Max M. 209 Yang, Michael Z. 454 Swaminathan, Ashwin FISHERSVILLE
301 Kadaveru, Akshaj 999 Yin, Wendy D. 162 Tao, Derek K. WILSON MEMORIAL H. S.
302 Kanuri, Ajith P. 170 You, Lydia G. 522 Ungar, Marie A. 161 Benzing, Jenna C.
209 Karaki, Claude C. 834 Young, Grace P.
164 Khang, Harriet J. 999 Zhang, Anna W.
000 Kim, Brandon CHARLOTTESVILLE H. S. FLOYD
455 Zhang, Charles Y. 000 Newman, Stephen H.
999 Kim, Clara J. 185 Zhang, Dean D. FLOYD COUNTY H. S.
950 Kim, Hannah L. 160 Robinson, Matthew W. 559 Martin, Shayley G.
301 Zhang, Justin R. 000 Weissman, Jonah R.
999 Kim, John S. 999 Zhao, Christine
833 Kim, Joseph D. 301 Zhou, Naitian FOREST
843 Klapper, Dylan N. ST. ANNE'S - BELFIELD SCHOOL
300 Zhu, Brian K. 000 Krupnick, Max J.
JEFFERSON FOREST H. S.
000 Kopparapu, Kavya V. 303 Zou, Kevin 741 Li, Amber M.
843 Kotnana, Aneesh 000 McKenny, Claire E.
000 Krause-Steinrauf, John L. 000 Pausic, Jack E.
843 Krishnan, Srinidhi R.
ST. STEPHEN'S AND 000 Waters, Lauren K. FORT DEFIANCE
000 Kuriakose, Minna
ST. AGNES SCHOOL FORT DEFIANCE H. S.
843 Dewhurst, John M. CHESAPEAKE 950 Miller, Joyner K.
742 Lasker, Justin C.
870 Fontham, Charlotte A. DEEP CREEK H. S.
000 Le, Kevin
000 Lee, Joshua 628 Kothmann, John E. FREDERICKSBURG
450 Lei, Mia F. T. C. WILLIAMS H. S. FREDERICKSBURG CHRISTIAN
000 Lei, Robert 522 Waldhoff, Madeline O. HICKORY H. S. SCHOOL
999 Li, Michael 999 Kohler, Alan E. 451 Manry, Gabriel A.
450 Li, Renee R. ARLINGTON
904 Lin, Eric Z. WASHINGTON - LEE H. S. WESTERN BRANCH H. S. RIVERBEND H. S.
843 Lin, Linda 999 Cordero, Christopher-Thomas 303 Lin, Gloria 457 Charette, Maura E.

3
Semifinalists: 2018 National Merit Scholarship Program
Virginia (continued)
GLEN ALLEN
DEEP RUN H. S.
451 Hallock-Solomon, Benjamin R.
000 Lim, Hyoseo
302 Mayes, William T.
HAYMARKET
BATTLEFIELD H. S.
162 Baird, Tristan T.
457 Morgan, Abigail J.
302 Moshiro, Lisa M.
HENRICO
MILLS E. GODWIN H. S.
450 Hamson, Annagrace
300 Parker, William G.
171 Zaman, Farheen
HERNDON
HERNDON H. S.
000 Barth, Michael J.
LEESBURG
LOUDOUN COUNTY H. S.
450 Lebor, John T.
303 Thomas, Ryan E.
TUSCARORA H. S.
000 Paulus, Samantha E.
LYNCHBURG
E. C. GLASS H. S.
162 Riffee, Jackson P.
NEW COVENANT SCHOOLS
454 Schram, Jensen N.
VIRGINIA EPISCOPAL SCHOOL
450 Cook, John S.
MANASSAS
CHARLES J. COLGAN H. S.
160 Yeboah-Kodie, Grace A.
OSBOURN PARK H. S.
170 Osborne, Lauren H.
999 Petscavage, Kenneth M.
MC LEAN
BASIS INDEPENDENT
000 Akhtar, Mohammed S.
LANGLEY H. S.
200 Angles, Matthew
455 Bell, Jordan M.
160 Cho, Jean
303 Golshani, Shayan
906 Holbrook, Karina A.
999 Kim, Dong Wook
843 Snyder, Torrey A.
999 Song, Sophia
303 Wang, Chenming
741 Yoo, Justin
303 Zhang, Ashley W.
THE MADEIRA SCHOOL
556 Thornton, Raegan N.
MC LEAN H. S.
000 Alexander, Hannah D.
169 Kang, Royce
303 Kim, Bradley
742 Kim, Justin
742 Medicherla, Keerthi H.
999 Opem, Careniena C.
520 Pincus, Jillian N.
999 Shankar, Siddarth
204 Sun, Philena M.
943 Wassertzug, Eli S.
000 Yu, Richard W.
POTOMAC SCHOOL
999 Cunnion, Madeline C.
000 Mills, Tracey E.
160 Terrones, Jasmine G.
MIDDLEBURG
FOXCROFT SCHOOL
742 Fann, Melanie X.
NEWPORT NEWS
HAMPTON ROADS ACADEMY
628 Payne, Emily A.
870 Pyo, Angela Y.
MENCHVILLE H. S.
303 Ruhlen, Zachary M.
NOKESVILLE
BRENTSVILLE DISTRICT H. S.
200 Page, Hailey A.
KETTLE RUN H. S.
000 O'Connor, Nicholas
160 Whitted, Liam
PATRIOT H. S.
000 Trang, Matthew L.
NORFOLK
GRANBY H. S.
169 White, Georgia C.
NORFOLK ACADEMY
160 Colizza, Mila K.
PHILOMONT
HOMESCHOOL
628 Ewin, Alexandra B.
PURCELLVILLE
LOUDOUN VALLEY H. S.
000 Broshkevitch, Adam T.
000 Clark, Andrew M.
000 Conrow, Elijah R.
500 Lu, Jessica A.
450 McFadden, Rebecca
WOODGROVE H. S.
160 Burroughs, John W.
QUANTICO
QUANTICO H. S.
450 Kelley, Patrick S.
RESTON
SOUTH LAKES H. S.
459 Chandra, Rohan
999 Sarup, Eshaan
RICHMOND
DOUGLAS S. FREEMAN H. S.
682 Blanchetti, Lauren M.
854 Sabharwal, Paul R.
ST. CATHERINE'S SCHOOL
628 Rhee, Lily C.
THE STEWARD SCHOOL
999 Jordan, Jessica A.
VERITAS SCHOOL
450 Norfleet, Jason R.
MAGGIE L. WALKER GOVERNOR'S
SCHOOL FOR GOVERNMENT AND
INTERNATIONAL STUDIES
300 Campbell, Eric
123 Carr, Sarah C.
870 Hines, Kristin L.
450 Hughes, Autumn G.
907 Hutchinson, Alexander S.
303 Jesselson, William R.
999 Kwak, Minhie W.
999 McCarey, Lauren
168 Miller, William B.
904 Qian, Catherine Y.
720 Quinn, Katherine G.
999 Telfair, Brittani
SOUTH RIDING
FREEDOM H. S.
301 Hariharan, Anoop
SPRINGFIELD
WEST SPRINGFIELD H. S.
430 Beckstrand, Genieva G.
950 Ranieri, Jonathon
STAUNTON
ROBERT E. LEE H. S.
457 Koehn, Andrew S.
741 Stuhlsatz, Sean D.
SUFFOLK
NANSEMOND - SUFFOLK
ACADEMY
000 Hogg, John
000 Houston, Jordan
VIENNA
JAMES MADISON H. S.
000 Balasubramani, Sudharsan
000 Hogan, Claire A.
000 Janowski, Allison
000 Joshi, Revati A.
000 Lane, Samantha M.
000 Liu, Benjamin P.
000 McCormick, Lauren
000 Radhakrishnan, Shankar
OAKCREST SCHOOL
553 Dort, Sophia E.
OAKTON H. S.
300 Bui, Bruce H.
450 Buttrey, Kira R.
999 Chen, Maggie A.
000 Huang, Ethan M.
168 Tern, Courtney A.
999 Yu, Jessie S.
VINTON
WILLIAM BYRD H. S.
830 Qiu, Richard L.
VIRGINIA BEACH
OCEAN LAKES H. S.
162 Corson, Roark R.
000 Scheib, William M.
000 Siraj, Reehan E.
000 Sun, Ralph C.
PRINCESS ANNE H. S.
742 Bouden, Clement T.
999 Damm, Andreas K.
999 Li, Nathan Y.
999 Pu, Jonathan F.
999 Ranjan, Nalin
SALEM H. S.
742 Goliff, Janna F.
WAYNESBORO
HOMESCHOOL
619 Maas, Madeline A.
WILLIAMSBURG
JAMESTOWN H. S.
451 Baker, Nathaniel A.
LAFAYETTE H. S.
450 Kuzmenko, Stanislav Y.
WINCHESTER
JOHN HANDLEY H. S.
185 Love, Catherine K.
WOODBRIDGE
FOREST PARK H. S.
467 Dereberry, Daniel
YORKTOWN
GRAFTON H. S.
628 Cao, Annie L.
999 Olson, Rachel L.
TABB H. S.
301 Gu, Jenny Y.