Students from 16 FCPS High Schools Named National Merit Semifinalists

Two hundred fourteen students from 16 high schools from across Fairfax County Public Schools have been named semifinalists by the National Merit Scholarship Corporation for 2022. 
 
The number of students honored this year during the pandemic is higher than last year when qualifying test scores were taken in 2019 before COVID-19 hit. The increase serves to indicate consistently high levels of academic achievement remain despite the challenges of the pandemic.
 
Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology (TJHSST), which also serves as the Governor’s Regional School for Northern Virginia, has 144 semifinalists - almost a third of the school’s entire junior class who sat for the PSAT in October 2020 on which the scholarship award is based. 
 
All semifinalists are eligible to compete for 7,500 National Merit Scholarship awards worth more than $30 million, to be awarded in spring 2022. Semifinalists advance to Finalist standing in the competition by meeting high academic standards and other requirements including a recommendation from their principal.

“I am proud of every student who earned the distinction of National Merit Semifinalist this year,” Dr. Scott Brabrand, Superintendent, said. “This year, we have two more semifinalists than we did last year when students took the PSAT before COVID. This strong result is proof that academic standards in FCPS remain high no matter what challenges the pandemic brings. Our students are truly exceptional. We now need to ensure that all our students have the opportunity to succeed at these high levels within our division.”

Fairfax County Public Schools (FCPS) 2022 National Merit semifinalists are: 

• Centreville High School: Elaine Chang, Rachel Choo, Ji Ye Yoon.
• Chantilly High School: Jordan Elasfari, Joshua Gao, Aarthika Krishnan, Yukta Ramanan, Adita Tarigoppula, Noyanika Vattahara, Jessica Yang, Srindhi Yelimati.
• Hayfield Secondary School: Dan Nguyen.
• Herndon High School: Nathan Ho, Jillian Schmid.
• Langley High School: Nathan Cao, Binh Huynh, Ryan Jones, Erika Li, Casey Lim, Chan-Ho Oh, William Orr, Elaine Zou. 
• Madison High School: Aaron Dubois, Anika Gupta, Vaneesha Gupta, Shawn Malik.
• Marshall High School: Arini Bhargava, Grace Chamberlain, Matthias Kebede, Zion Kim 
• McLean High School: Avery Barnett, Jack Deutsch, Nathaniel Garcia, Emilie Kim, Paul Kim, Cynthia Ma, Victor Pan, Songhan Pang, Joyce Qi, Juliana Toro, Stefan Van Biljon, Kelvin Yuan, Cathy Zhang. 
• Oakton High School: Arielle Kim, Jayden Liu, Anmol Malviya, Anthony Nguyen, Anjana Rajesh, Charles Tatum, Jaden Wang. 
• South County High School: Ronit Reddy.
• South Lakes High School: Caroline Amsbary, Nicole Cheban, Mina Tunley.
• Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology (TJHSST): Anand Advani, Ryan Angle, Aarav Bajaj, Shaina Banduri, Anirudh Bansal, Saloni Bedi, Sydney Belt, Hai Lun Bian, Shyla Bisht, Ari Bobesh, Elizabeth Brown, Ashley Chen, Caroline Chen, Emily Chen, Justin Chen, Lynelle Chen, Victoria Chen, Joanna Cheng, Aditya Chezhiyan, Sehyun Choi, Justine Chu, Jeb Cui, Lauren Delwiche, Michelle Du, Maria Dubasov, Pulak Dugar, Annika Duneja, Michael Fatemi, Jessica Feng, Daniel Frank, Medha Gaddam, Hari Gajjala, Harrish Ganesh, Sameeksha Garg, Eugene Gonzalez, Meghana Gopannagari, Alyssa Gorbaneva, William Graf, Arya Grayeli, Ramya Griddaluri, Pesandi Gunasekera, Sagar Gupta, Sahil Gupta, William Hancock, Garrett Heller, Anna Hsu, David Hu, Andrew Huang, Jennifer Hunsinger, Mirza Hussain, Kareem Jaber, Arjun Jagannathan, Arjun Jagdeesh, Pratyush Jaishanker, Joniel Jerome, Leon Jia, William Jiang, Ayesha Kabduwal, Nitin Kanchinadam, Esha Karlekar, Aarav Khanna, Anuj Khemka, Raffu Khondaker, Darius Kianersi, John Kim, Tae Ha Kim, Anwitha Kollipara, Sudiksha Konanki, Amit Krishnaiyer, Alexander Kuebler, Yoo-Bin Kwon, Andrew Lam, Chaemin Lee, Edward Lee, Elliot Lee, Jonathan Lee, Rachel Lewis, Edward Li, Elaine Li, Valerie Li, Yeefay Li, Joshua Lim, Isaac Lin, Michelle Lin, Derek Liu, Michelle Liu, Sheryn Livingstone, Angelina Ly, David Lyons, Darin Mao, Harold Margeta-Cacace, Pranav Mathur, Shreyas Mayya, Aditya Menachery, Autin Mitra, Maria Molchanova, Trishal Muthan, Hasita Nalluri, Tanisha Pagadala, Anjali Pagidi, Akash Pamal, Anya Parekh, Bryant Park, Ian Park, Aishani Patnaik, Akash Piya, Pravalika Putalapattu, Rolina Qu, Elena Rangelov, Rishi Raturi, Mahika Rawat, Isabelle Trini Rogando, Owen Rollins, Michelle Ru, Amrita Sahu, Jasjeet Sandhu, Kendall Sano, Isra Satiar, Allison Seo, Zacharia Shah, Aviraj Singh, Shreya Singh, Aarush Sivanesan, Alison Song, Lauren Spehlmann, Candace Sun, Ashwitha Surabhi, Isabella Tian, Rachel Trainer, Erin Tran, Samhita Vinay, Alison Wan, Marina Wang, Max Wang, Melissa Wu, Natalie Wu, Grant Xiao, Manda Xie, Keertana Yalamanchili, Jason Yi, Megan Yu, Albert Zeng, Bowen Zhang, Jason Zhong.
• West Potomac High School: Geoffrey Dubay, Grant Hamilton, Matthew Morris, Cara Omohundro.
• West Springfield High School: Sarah Kim.
• Westfield High School: Benjamin Cho, Hannah Ewell, Anika Joshi, Isabelle Lee, Pratham Mehta, Adithi Prasad, Aaryan Rawal. 
• Woodson High School: Aaron Amartuvshin, Ja-Zhua Cheng, Ilse Eskelsen, Enoch Li, Megan Yi. 

Approximately 16,000 high school seniors were named National Merit Scholarship semifinalists for 2022. More than 1.5 million juniors entered the 2022 National Merit program by taking the 2020 Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test (PSAT/NMSQT®), which serves as the initial screen of program entrants.  

The nationwide pool of semifinalists, which represents 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 state’s percentage of the national total of graduating seniors. These determinations are made by the National Merit Scholarship Corporation, not FCPS or individual schools.

Three types of Merit Scholarship awards will be offered in 2022: National Merit $2,500 scholarships, corporate-sponsored scholarships, and college-sponsored scholarships.

Merit Scholarship winners will be announced in spring 2022.

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Note: For more information, contact the FCPS Office of Communication and Community Relations at 571-423-1200.