Orange County Students Win National Merit Scholarships

ORANGE COUNTY, CA — Twenty-nine high school students from across Orange County this month were named National Merit Scholars, a prestigious designation for 2,500 students that comes with a $2,500 scholarship.

The scholarship winners were selected out of 15,000 candidates across the country, according to the National Merit Scholarship Corp. A committee of college admissions officers and high school counselors selected the winners as having the strongest combination of accomplishments, skills and potential for success in college.

Finalists were judged based on their Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test score, their academic record, an essay, extracurricular activities and a recommendation from a high school official.

Here are the following winners in Orange County and what they plan to study in college:

• Lauren Yu, Brea Olinda High School, computer science
• Jared E. Hsu, Buena Park High School, biology
• Nolan G. Clement, Troy High School, computer science
• Henry Tang, Troy High School, physics
• Sabrina P. Do, Sage Hill School, medicine
• Neha Bhardwaj, University High School, computer science
• Richard Fang, Irvine High School, computer science
• David Han, Arnold O. Beckman High School, finance
• Lana Minjung Hwang, Northwood High School, psychiatry
• Jennifer H. Kim, Crean Lutheran High School, dentistry
• Amisha Kumar, Troy High School, medicine
• Ashmita Kumar, Troy High School, computer science
• Gina Lee, Portola High School, materials engineering
• Ryain Liu, Northwood High School, physics
• Celine Sara Shafee, Sage High School, medicine
• Audrey F. Wong, Arnold O. Beckman High School, mechanical engineering
• Angela Zhang, Arnold O. Beckman High School, business administration
• Howard K. Zhang, Portola High School, law
• Hannah Yimei Zhao, Orange County School of the Arts, business
• Andy Q. Zhu, Northwood High School, computer science
• Pengcheng Zhu, Sage Hill School, chemistry
• Ethan J. Kirgan, Orange County School of the Arts, medicine
• Mason D. Hunt, Newport Harbor High School, medicine
• Kennedy R. Leehealey, Mater Dei High School, healthcare
• Viraj B. Jansari, Troy High School, biomedicine
• Eileen F. Chen, Foothill High School, film production
• Alyssa Ly, Foothill High School, computer science
• Maria G. Bulis, Yorba Linda High School, mechanical engineering
• Rayhan Razzak, Yorba Linda High School, applied mathematics

The National Merit Scholarship awards are financed by the National Merit Scholarship Committee. Other National Merit Scholarships are underwritten by about 400 corporations or company foundations.

Scholarship finalists have been announced on a staggered basis since fall 2021 when 16,000 high school seniors who scored in the top 1 percent of the PSAT were named semifinalists.

In April, about 1,000 corporate-sponsored National Merit Scholars were named, and on June 1 and July 11, 4,000 more college-sponsored scholarship winners will be announced. By the end of 2022, the National Merit Scholarship Corp. estimated that 7,500 scholars will have been awarded a total of about $28 million.