12 Pleasanton Teens Are Presidential Scholars Program Candidates

PLEASANTON, CA — Twelve Pleasanton students are in the running for the distinguished 2021 U.S. Presidential Scholars Program.

Pleasanton had more candidates than any other Tri-Valley city.

Candidates include Allison E. Gable, Jeffrey Huang, Jonathan Huang, Elliot S. Kang, Dalynn A. Miller, Collin Wang, Cassandra K. Ying and Jocelyn Zhu of Amador Valley High School, and Angela Y. Chen, Kevin Li, Jiahua Liang and Amala K. Rao of Foothill High School.

See which other Tri-Valley students are in the running:

• Danville: Ynes Traore of San Ramon Valley High School
• San Ramon: Savit Bhat, Risha Chakraborty, Jaryd Leong, Aditi Raju, Amritha Ramesh, Shreya Ravikumar, Sonal Sharma and Alex C. Zhang of Dougherty Valley High School; Kushagra Tiwari of California High School; Elliot Yoon (school not listed)
• Livermore: Hriday N. Sheth of Granada High School

The program was established by an executive order from former President Lyndon B. Johnson in 1964, according to a news release from the U.S. Presidential Scholars Office. It recognizes accomplished high school seniors for their efforts.

Students are variously honored for their accomplishments in the arts, career and technical fields, and more broadly, academic achievement.

Panelists will review applications from the 4,500 candidates in early April and select 600 semifinalists. Finalists will be named in May.

Up to 161 students are named as U.S. Presidential Scholars each year.

More than 7,500 U.S. Presidential Scholars have been recognized since the program's inception.

See the full list of candidates here.