Thirty Students Named Winners of $2,500 National Merit Scholarships

Thirty students from ten Fairfax County high schools have been named winners of $2,500 scholarships from the National Merit Scholarship Corporation.  Scholarship winners are part of a group of approximately 2,500 National Merit finalists chosen to receive scholarships primarily financed by the NMSC.  
Winners of the scholarships, with their probable career fields in parentheses, are:

• Kartik Chugh of Chantilly High School (computer science).
• Eileen Wen of Langley High School (neuroscience).
• Caroline Howley of McLean High School (undecided).
• Isabella Swigart of McLean High School (genetics).
• Devan Fink of Madison High School (quantitative analysis).
• Madeleine Kienzle of Marshall High School (chemistry).
• Carolyn Qu of Oakton High School (computer science).
• Madeleine Taft of Robinson Secondary School (engineering).
• Sarah Anstice of South County High School (physical therapy).
• Alexander Ahn of Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology (TJHSST) (medicine).
• Varshini Babu of TJHSST (medicine).
• Shresta Bangaru of TJHSST (computer science).
• Christopher Bi of TJHSST (science-research).
• Junhyun Chong of TJHSST (chemical engineering).
• Neha Damaraju of TJHSST (biomedical engineering).
• Eric Gan of TJHSST (computer science).
• Claire Heinbaugh of TJHSST (computer science).
• Ryan Kim of TJHSST (mathematics).
• Vivian Lin of TJHSST (biomedical engineering).
• Jack Liu of TJHSST (computer science).
• Richard Lun of TJHSST (computer programming).
• Siona Prasad of TJHSST (computer science).
• Jennifer Pruitt of TJHSST (computer science).
• Evan Shi of TJHSST (computer science).
• Kevin Wang of TJHSST (law).
• Daniel Wisdom of TJHSST (computer science).
• Hanna Xu of TJHSST (computer science).
• Fred Zhang of TJHSST (statistics).
• Julia Zhou of TJHSST (bioinformatics).
• Kelly Huang of Woodson High School (chemistry).

Each of the FCPS winners received a scholarship supported by the NMSC’s own funds.

 
Each scholarship winner was evaluated on his or her academic record, including difficulty level of subjects studied and grades earned; scores from two standardized tests; contributions and leadership in school and community activities; a personal essay; and a recommendation from a high school official.  The number of winners named in a state is in proportion to the state’s percentage of the national total of graduating high school seniors. Winners are chosen by the National Merit Scholarship Corporation, not the school district.

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