The National Merit Scholarship Corporation (NMSC®) has announced the names of over 16,000 semifinalists who participated in the 68th Annual National Merit Scholarship Program, and among them are 77 Katy ISD high school students. These students have the opportunity to continue in the competition for over 7,000 National Merit Scholarships, totaling nearly $28 million, that will be awarded to students next spring. The following Katy ISD campuses have students named as semifinalists in the National Merit Scholarship Corporation program:
Minh-Thong Bui
Seaver Chester
Hayden Dgama
Maitreyi Dighe
Maxwell Finnegan
Reese Gilley
Arnav Joshi
Puneesh Kapoor
Aiden Miller
Gurpreet Singh
Megan Zhang
JORDAN HIGH SCHOOL
Ananya Bhawsinka
Armaan Chadha
Evan Jin
Namrata Jithendra
Alexandra Lopez-Izquierdo
Samuel Owen McEntee
Janina Ojeiduma
Rishav Sarkar
Saumya Seth
Vincent Xia
Akhil Yarlagadda
SEVEN LAKES HIGH SCHOOL
Akanksha Acharya
Carlotta Angiolillo
Sophia Danielle Bailey
Jessica Chai
Roger Chen
Iris Cheng
Aneesh Deshmukh
Aayushi Gandhi
Sravya Gullapalli
Vishnu Indukuri
Akash Joseph
Danyal Kheyroolla
Christopher Lee
Andy Li
Bryant Li
Roger Liu
Riley Lorenz
Giancarlo Massimo
Jay Mehta
Natalie Pang
Seongwon Park
Matthew Qian
Keane Quiambao
Yahia Ramadan
Adhithi Venkatraghavan
Phoenix Wu
Kevin Xu
Matthew Zhao
TAYLOR HIGH SCHOOL
Mariam Elsharkawy
Kritika Gautam
Melissa Huang
Minkyu Lim
Vivienne Luu
Egan Wang
TOMPKINS HIGH SCHOOL
Ahana Bhat
Mandy Chen
Yujin Chung
Kaushik Jayaprakash
Daniel Jiang
Navya Kavuri
Ella Li
Aarushi Manian
Adeeba Mohammed
Ishan Patel
Haihua Pei
Sanjana Perungulam
Alejandro Rivera
Sanjay Senthilvelan
Alex Shi
Abhinav Tiruveedhula
Naga Sai Veeramallu
Haitian Wu
Nicole Xu
Cory Zhang
Emma Zuo
To become a finalist, students and a high school official must submit a detailed scholarship application, in which they provide information about the semifinalist's academic record, their participation in school and community activities, information demonstrating leadership abilities, employment and any honors and awards received. Additionally, a semifinalist must have an outstanding academic record throughout high school, be endorsed and recommended by a high school official, write an essay and earn SAT or ACT scores that confirm their performance on the qualifying test.
“We’re proud of these students and all they’ve accomplished,” said Ronnie Edwards, Assistant Superintendent for School Leadership & Support. “To have 77 Katy ISD students advancing to the finalist stage of the National Merit Scholarship Program is a testament to their pursuit for academic excellence,” added Edwards.
Katy ISD semifinalists will be recognized at a Districtwide reception on October 24.
