San Ramon Students Named National Merit Semifinalists

SAN RAMON, CA — Forty-five students San Ramon students were named National Merit Scholarship semifinalists, the National Merit Scholarship Corporation announced. That included 12 students from California High School and 33 from Dougherty Valley 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:

CALIFORNIA HIGH SCHOOL:

1. Meghan G. Cheung
2. Isaac L. Chu
3. Callan B. Griffin
4. Mengze Li
5. William Y. Li
6. Kadon O. Liang
7. Sahil S. Nayak
8. William T. Piggott IV
9. Naman S. Rudrakshi
10. Amritha Srinivasan
11. Srikar Thippavajjula
12. Cindy Y. Zhao

DOUGHERTY VALLEY HIGH SCHOOL

1. Prisha Agarwal
2. Aryan Agrawal
3. Aditya Bhaskara
4. Hunter Bian
5. Varun Challa
6. Aditya Chandrasekhar
7. Josiah Chen
8. Aarush De
9. Adithya M. Krishna
10. Vainavi Kumar
11. Jayden D. Lee
12. Rohan V. Malani
13. Khushi Mehrotra
14. Andy L. Mei
15. Plaban Mishra
16. Pallavi Nadhan
17. Nirav M. Naidu
18. Aditya Narayan
19. Aiden D. Park
20. Sejun Park
21. Michael K. Pham
22. Shalini S. Rajkumar
23. Rohit Sandadi
24. Katherine X. Shen
25. Joy Wang
26. Joyce Wang
27. Justin Wang
28. Hongyi Wei
29. Joyce C. Wu
30. Victoria C. Xu
31. Joshua Z. Zhang
32. Timothy Y. Zhang
33. William J. Zhao

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.