13 Naperville Central Students Named Semifinalists For National Merit Scholarships

NAPERVILLE, IL — Thirteen Naperville Central High School students were recently named as semifinalists in the 71st Annual National Merit Scholarship Program on Wednesday, the National Merit Scholarship Corporation announced.

The Naperville Central students who are among the 16,000 semifinalists nationwide are:

• Cheran Balakumaran
• Audrey Z. Cheng
• Hannah N. Chu
• Acer P. Colbenson
• Riya S. Dondapati
• Stefan Ilic
• Lily Jia
• Hannah W. Leong
• Harry H. Liu
• Carina Rao
• Amy R. Yang
• Nina J. Zhan
• Darren Zhou

Of the 16,000 semifinalists, 6,930 will be selected to receive their share of $26 million in scholarship money.

According to the news release, to be considered for a scholarship award, semifinalists must fulfill several requirements to advance to the finalist level of the competition. About 95 percent of semifinalists are expected to attain finalist standing, and about half of the finalists will win a National Merit scholarship.

More than 1.3 million juniors in some 21,000 high schools throughout the U.S. entered the 2026 National Merit Scholarship Program via the SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test, which is the first step for students who want to enter the program.

The semifinalists represent less than one percent of U.S. high school seniors, among which are the highest-scoring entrants in each state, according to National Merit.

Finalists will be announced in winter of 2026.