6 Encinitas Students Named National Merit Scholarship Semifinalists

ENCINITAS, CA — Dozens of San Diego area students — including six in Encinitas — were named National Merit Scholarship semifinalists, the National Merit Scholarship Corporation announced this week.

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 6,870 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 70th annual National Merit Scholarship Program. Winners will be announced between April and July 2025.

These are the semifinalists in San Diego County:

Carlsbad

Army and Navy Academy

• Nguyen, Hung

Carlsbad High School

• Dee, Zaiden
• Dresios, Demetrios
• Dresios, Marianthe
• Dresios, Vassilios

Pacific Ridge School

• Santiago, Jaden
• Simpson, Carter

Sage Creek High School

• Caviness, Phillip
• Dougherty, Jacob
• Farrelly, Keenan
• Hao, Yunshu
• Lee, Emma
• Sakhranov, Ivan

Chula Vista

Olympian High School

• Flores, Natalie

El Cajon

Granite Hills High School

• Jebraeel, Fadi

Encinitas

The Grauer School

• Weir, Erin

San Dieguito Academy

• Berman, Jonah
• Lo, Aiden
• Pai, Christopher
• Sarikonda, Aaditya
• Sleight, Dahlia

Escondido

Classical Academy High School

• Kim, Skyler

San Pasqual High School

• Whitby, Gabriel R.

La Jolla

The Bishop's School

• Chen, Carley
• Chuckravanen, Sashi
• Gover, Mia
• Ha, Khai
• Kao, Emma
• Kim, Angelina
• Liang, Hao
• Lin, Audrey
• Liu, Serena
• Qin, Ryan
• Spiro, Dillon
• Wang, Logan
• Wang, Muping
• Wu, Yuanxiang
• Yi, Zoe

La Jolla Country Day School

• Ni, Gavin S.

La Jolla High School

• Abell, David
• Cairns, Dylan
• Cox, Katherine
• Grilli, Elena
• Jones, Elijah
• Lehman, Mira
• Lehman, Sarah
• Myers, Benjamin
• Sharma, Kyra

La Mesa

Helix Charter High School

• Beer, Lukas R.
• Kertson, Peyton S.

Oceanside

El Camino High School

• Bishay, Christa G.

Poway

Poway High School

• Bizjack, Donovan G.
• Chu, Landan Y.
• Gregg, Elizabeth A.
• Kirschbaum, Megan S.
• Stewart, Gabriel J.

Rancho Santa Fe

High Bluff Academy

• Moryakov, Dmitry

San Diego

Cal Coast Academy

• Carpiuc, Bradley

The Cambridge School

• Chin, Alexander
• Chin, Ethan
• Lee, Jeong-Chan
• Sinha, Zachary

Canyon Crest Academy

• Amihai, Noam
• Backues, Alexander
• Bai, Ryan
• Bayraktaroglu, Ozan
• Bhat, Neha
• Bhatmuley, Shail
• Chadha, Arav
• Chen, Kaitlyn
• Chen, Stephen
• Criqui, Tate
• Fehmi, Ali
• Gao, Sarah
• Goodsell, Koe
• Guo, Brian
• Huang, Sierra
• Jiang, Helena
• Kim, Elly
• Lau, Celine
• Lesmes, Leo
• Li, Anlin
• Liu, Allen
• Long, Giada
• Lu, Emily
• Lutsenko, Kirill
• Malhotra, Nav
• Mandadi, Krish
• Mao, Albert
• Minna-Choe, Kailani
• Mock, Ella
• Mostowfi, Kimia
• Palyada, Aahana
• Shao, Elaina
• Song, Audrey
• Sun, Haowen
• Tak, Minkyu
• Tian, Andrew
• Uchiyama, Misa
• Wang, Jintong
• Wang, Sarah
• Wu, Larry
• Wu, Ryan
• Zhang, Alan
• Zhang, Emily
• Zhang, Maggie
• Zhang, Noel
• Zhou, Andrew

Del Norte High School

• Akella, Satvik
• Bansal, Rishi
• Chang, Sean
• Chu, Brandon
• Darugar, Rayyan
• Dewasurendra, Pahan
• Khattar, Zinia
• Kimber, Allison
• Lalwani, Nikhil
• Marilla, Isabel
• Mondal, Raunak
• Ni, Chenjia
• Partridge, Alyssa Jane
• Patel, Shreeya
• Patel, Tanay
• Patil, Tanisha
• Pulivendula, Ankit
• Rajasekar, Jeevika
• Ramamurthy, Chinmay
• Reddy, Alekhya
• Shah, Ayanna
• Sheng, Raymond
• Simon, Noah
• Tang, Sophia
• Tejada Oviedo, Andres
• Wadhwani, Dishti
• Xiao, Alex
• Xu, Kate
• Zhang, Jason
• Zhu, Steven

Francis W. Parker School

• Brown, Jonas
• Li, Eric
• Manda, Abhiram
• Ohta, Jason
• Parikh, Anika
• Soule, Nicholas

Mission Bay High School

• Hubbard, Anna

Morse High School

• Reinstein, Miles

Mount Carmel High School

• Kalyanaraman, Anirudh
• MacIsaac, Kayden A.
• Nudurupati, Aneesh
• Palacios, Daniel
• Wen, Raine

Mount Everest Academy

• Sung, Christiana

Rancho Bernardo High School

• Dinh, Nathaniel
• Kwack, Joyce
• Slape, Peyton
• Thienpreecha, Pukaphol
• Yang, Christopher

Scripps Ranch High School

• Bai, Nicholas
• Cai, Michelle
• Chan, Andrea
• Choi, Hyein
• Colbourn, Robert
• Henderson, Lauren
• Manikandan, Rithvik
• Pacal, Edward
• Ramamurthy, Aditi
• Riehl, Quinner
• Rosing, Alisa
• Sanigepalli, Shashank
• Su, Ian
• Tran, Delbert
• Wang, Vivian

Torrey Pines High School

• Chang, Joshua
• Chen, Liuqing
• Jiao, Siyuan

University City High School

• Deutsch, David
• Nordstrand, Noah

Westview High School

• Chen, Chloe J.
• Chen, Trevor B.
• Deng, Dylan M.
• Devadiga, Jyotsna Y.
• Lerdworatawee, Ryan L.
• Sun, Chloe J.
• Thayillam, Breanna M.
• Xie, Anne J.
• Yousuf, Ilana
• Zheng, Kyle X.

San Marcos

San Marcos High School

• Fitterer, Jack

Santee

West Hills High School

• Ching, Nicole C.

Solana Beach

Santa Fe Christian School

• Pandian, Jadon
• Park, Malia