Thirty-Three Students Named National Merit Scholarship Winners

Thirty-three students from eight 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 in 2020 primarily financed by the NMSC.  

Winners of the scholarships, with their probable career fields in parentheses, are: 

• Gayatri Chintala (political science), Chantilly High School.
• Yifan Chen (international development), Chantilly High School.
• Jeffrey Pei (business), Langley High School.
• Karina Wugang (law), Langley High School.
• Katherine Helmicki (veterinary medicine), Madison High School.
• Sophia Konde (undecided), Marshall High School.
• Albert Ding (computer science), Oakton High School.
• Pristina Koon (government service-intelligence), Robinson Secondary School.
• Sabrina Cai (neuroscience), Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology (TJHSST).
• Jessica Chen (international development), TJHSST.
• Alex Chung (applied mathematics), TJHSST.
• Aimee Feng (computer science), TJHSST.
• Saketh Gabbita (computer science), TJHSST.
• Shubham Goda (computer science), TJHSST.
• Joshua Gong (computer science), TJHSST.
• Victoria Graf (undecided), (TJHSST).
• Sarah Gu (computer science), TJHSST.
• Justin Han (medicine), TJHSST.
• Brandon Kim (biomedical engineering), TJHSST.
• Ann Li (computer science), TJHSST.
• Jenny Li (computer science), TJHSST.
• Jerry Li (computer science), TJHSST.
• Rishabh Misra (computer science), TJHSST.
• Philip Pan (finance), TJHSST.
• Vaibhav Sharma (computer engineering), TJHSST.
• Sylvia Tan (computer science), TJHSST.
• Jialin Tso (computer science), TJHSST.
• Emily Wang (computer science), TJHSST.
• Shannon Xiao (computer science), TJHSST.
• William Xu (chemistry), TJHSST.
• Mia Yang (biomedicine), TJHSST.
• Richard Zhan (computer science), TJHSST.
• Ishan Kalburge (academia), Woodson High School.

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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