2 Encinitas Students Named National Merit Scholarship Semifinalists

ENCINITAS, CA — Dozens of San Diego area students — including two from Encinitas — were named National Merit Scholarship semifinalists, the National Merit Scholarship Corporation announced.

The students are among more than 16,000 semifinalists in the running to be named a National Merit Scholar, and receive a $2,500 scholarship to help them further their education. Roughly 6,930 National Merit Scholarships worth nearly $26 million will be awarded next spring, according to the National Merit Scholarship Corporation.

To become a finalist, semifinalists must submit a detailed scholarship application that provides information about their academic record, participation in school and community activities, demonstrated leadership abilities, employment, and honors and awards received. They must also be recommended by a high school official, receive SAT or ACT scores high enough to qualify, and write an essay.

About 95% of the semifinalists are expected to attain finalist standing, and approximately half of the finalists are expected to win a National Merit Scholarship, earning the Merit Scholar title in the 71st annual National Merit Scholarship Program. Winners will be announced between April and July 2026.

These are the semifinalists in San Diego County:

Carlsbad

Carlsbad High School

• Dee, Danielle J.
• O'Neill, Lily H.

Pacific Ridge School

• Smyshlyaeva, Katerina

Sage Creek High School

• Daley, Alyssa
• Henson, Lucas

Chula Vista

Mater Dei Catholic High School

• Lezarda, Rylan
• Martinez, Khalil
• Ocampo, Adrian

Olympian High School

• Lee, Gianna

Coronado

Coronado High School

• Langevin, Roxanne

El Cajon

Valhalla High School

• Wang, Emma

Encinitas

San Dieguito High School Academy

• Dillon, Shreyas O.
• Kuta, Calvin K.

La Jolla

The Bishop's School

• Chang, Tyler J.
• Hernandez, Naveen E.
• Li, Yutong
• Liu, Rebecca R.
• Mafong, Sydney
• Moores, Allison A.
• Pan, Jennifer L.
• Shim, Jake D.
• Tao, Christopher J.
• Weisser, Jackson R.
• Xuan, Kailin
• Yan, Amy R.
• Yang, Anna S.
• Yen, Kaylee A.
• Zeng, Sophie S.
• Zhang, Rudy L.

La Jolla Country Day School

• Graham, Luke P.
• Levine, Noah J.
• Tang, Erik Z.

La Jolla High School

• DeMott, Luke
• Park, Harry
• Ying, Max

Lakeside

El Capitan High School

• Seeno, Noah

River Valley Charter School

• Spicer, Jack A.

Poway

Pacific Coast Academy

• Burton, Brighton G.

Poway High School

• Campbell, Tasia A.

Ramona

Mountain Valley Academy

• Campbell, Peter F.

San Diego

Academy of Our Lady of Peace

• Cabrera, Elizabeth Q.

The Cambridge School

• Chen, Melody
• Lee, Noah

Canyon Crest Academy

• An, Claire
• Anand, Nikita
• Avanesian, Gabriel H.
• Bai, Ryan
• Belkin-Wang, Alexander
• Cai, Ethan
• Cao, Oliver
• Chan, Ebenezer
• Chen, Andrew J.
• Choe, Mason A.
• Choi, Stephanie S.
• Coward, Matthew T.
• Dagar, Arnav
• Du, Bingzhou
• Fairbanks, Caitlin E.
• Gao, Aiden L.
• Gao, William K.
• Guo, Jonathan Y.
• Han, Lucas J.
• He, Hansen
• Hu, Michelle R.
• Huang, Bryan Y.
• Huang, Kaleb J.
• Jeon, Katherine N.
• Ji, Catherine
• Kan, Lauren
• Kang, Ryan J.
• Lieberman, Aviva L.
• Lim, Ricky G.
• Liu, Kaelyn M.
• Lu, Mina
• Merugu, Manasvi
• Mu, Evan X.
• Nallagatla, Siddharth
• Nyberg, Adiya C.
• Pan, Selina
• Park, Jaehee
• Pisor, Sarah M.
• Polo, Gabriella D.
• Rupareliya, Roha
• Ryu, Wonhee
• Shin, Andrew
• Sisitsky, Ethan K.
• Song, Eric J.
• Suen, Joshua
• Teo, Shane E.
• Unadi, Brundasree
• Xie, Colin
• Yang, Anthony
• Yang, William
• Yeh, Cynthia
• Yu, Linda
• Zhao, Zander
• Zheng, Audrey

Del Norte High School

• Atti, Srijan
• Bhatnagar, Jia
• Chen, Hayden
• Desai, Aditya A.
• Ganji, Vidha Yadav
• Garg, Advik
• Guyot, Grayson I.
• Kaas, Maxwell R.
• Kang, Chloe F.
• Leeder, Bailey R.
• Li, Hanlun
• Liang, Kyle
• Liu, Sarah
• Nayak, Rini
• Reddy, Aashray
• Reed, Sean M.
• Schneider, Diem S.
• Singamneni, Akhil
• Smerican, Justin T.
• Verma, Rahul
• Wheeler, Kai
• Withee, Kiana L.
• Wu, Ian V.
• Xu, Jenna
• Zhang, Austin T.

Patrick Henry High School

• Gough, Jasper

Heritage Christian School

• Neynaber, Ian

Homeschool/online school

• Guoji, Justin

Maranatha Christian Schools

• Woizeschke, Alannah

Mission Bay High School

• Rosenblum, Julian

Mount Carmel High School

• Brand, Elijah
• Gollamudi, Yuvan
• Patel, Ronak
• Reich, Zoe

Francis W. Parker School

• Champsi, Ayan
• Duncan, Isla
• Khushu, Ronit
• Krishna, Akshika
• Li, Aaron
• Madiraju, Rithvik
• Ngantung, Gregory
• Zambelli, Dante

Point Loma High School

• Boyle, Nevan
• Hughes, Aiden
• Wilson, Delila

Rancho Bernardo High School

• Kim, Simeon S.
• Liu, William Y.
• Masham, Akari T.
• Rosello, Lucas M.
• Ryou, Junseo
• Wang, Yuekai

San Diego Jewish Academy

• Koning, Harrison

Scripps Ranch High School

• Boorla, Anish
• Cai, Ryan
• Goel, Khushee
• Lam, Gabrielle
• Pillay, Roshen
• Potluri, Charita Sree
• Somchaudhuri, Abheek
• Veerepalli, Dhruv
• Zou, Julia

Torrey Pines High School

• Chen, Chutian A.
• Feng, Sarina
• Laughlin, Sophie R.
• Lawson, Collier E.
• Mehta, Nila
• Smee, Ian A.
• Wang, Ethan L.
• Xie, Eric

University High School

• Shim, Naomi
• Tichenor, Kaylee

Westview High School

• Chapman, Kevin M.
• Chelliserry, Rashmi
• Chu, Jayden S.
• Dang, Hannah H.
• Espiritu, Zoey Reese G.
• Fan, Leanne
• He, David Z.
• He, Lindsay
• Huang, Jeffrey X.
• Kaushish, Sara
• Lu, Ethan C.
• Ma, Jaden J.
• Ryu, Pio T.
• Samuel, Griffin A.
• Sun, Michelle
• Wu, Julian Y.
• Zhang, Melody Y.

San Marcos

San Marcos High School

• Bartels, Nathan

Santee

Santana High School

• Burns, Sebastian

Spring Valley

Steele Canyon High School

• Raymond, Mason D.