Pleasanton Students Named National Merit Semifinalists

PLEASANTON, CA — Forty-seven students who attend school in Pleasanton were named National Merit Scholarship semifinalists, the National Merit Scholarship Corporation announced. That included 30 students from Amador Valley High School and 17 students from Foothill High School.

The students joined more than 16,000 students in the running to be named a National Merit Scholar, and receive a $2500 scholarship to help them further their educations. The following semifinalists received PSAT/NMSQT exam scores high enough to place them in the top one percent of US high school seniors:

AMADOR VALLEY HIGH SCHOOL:

1. Arianna Barik
2. Ziyu Bian
3. Gauri Chawla
4. Alayna Chen
5. Eric Chen
6. Zachary Cheng
7. Tejasveer Chugh
8. Aryan Das
9. Aditi Deshpande
10. Filipp Dmitriev
11. Archith Datta Erigineni
12. Catherine Gao
13. Abhinav Garg
14. Zhiheng He
15. Helen H. Hoang
16. Christian Jones
17. Varadan Kalkunte
18. Skye Kazempour
19. Dia Panicker
20. Skyler J. Pranadi
21. Vidhaat Prashanth
22. Sanjay Ravishankar
23. Vardaan Singhania
24. Raghav Sreekumar
25. Anusha Sundar
26. Alex Wang
27. Leran Xie
28. Jennifer T. Zhu
29. Angela Zhang
30. Leyuan Zhang

FOOTHILL HIGH SCHOOL

1. Advay Bajpai
2. Prisha Bhandari
3. Aahana Biswal
4. Ratul Chakraborty
5. Karisa Chui
6. Emily Cooper
7. Kellyn Cowger
8. Kabeer Gupta
9. Clarissa M. Huber
10. Nirav Jaiswal
11. Anish Kallu
12. Phil Lin
13. Lakshanya PalaniThangavelappan
14. Harini Penumuchu
15. Iris Z. Sun
16. Kylie Zhang
17. Alex Zhen

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

About 95 percent of semifinalists are expected to attain finalist standing, and approximately half of finalists are expected to win a National Merit Scholarship, according to the NMSC. Winners will be announced in four news releases from April to July of 2025.