41 National Merit Scholarship Semifinalists In Class Of 2025 At New Trier Area Schools

NEW TRIER TOWNSHIP, IL — More than 40 students from local high schools advanced to the semifinalist round of the National Merit scholarship program, nearly as many as last year.

The local high-scoring seniors announced Wednesday are among the 16,000 students nationwide to be named semifinalists based on the results of the Preliminary SAT tests they took during their junior years.

They include 34 seniors from New Trier High School and seven from local private schools.

The National Merit Scholarship Corporation will award nearly $26 million in scholarship money to 6,870 finalists in the spring and summer of 2025.

Here are this year's semifinalists from high schools in Wilmette, Winnetka and Northfield.

Christian Heritage Academy

• Emi Christian
• Alexandra Lee

Loyola Academy

• John P. Ehlert
• Martin Raphael C. Gonzalez
• Gustav Y. Koh
• Ethan Santiago
• Seiichi R. Villacarlos

New Trier High School

• Eric Arrowsmith
• Brett Cardonick
• Garrett Chong
• Chase Crawford
• Mattelyn Crawford
• Franklin Cui
• Henry Deng
• Mark Gibbard
• Adam Gurevich
• Jacob Han
• Nathan Heftman
• Henry Hipschen
• Theodore Kaczmarek
• Alexander Karabatsos
• William Karr
• Doyun Lee
• Eda Memik
• Kaci Morris
• Alexander Myerholtz
• Bardiya Niknam
• David Organ
• Ranjit Paintal
• Neil Sanderson
• Sean Scott
• William Shin
• Lillian Tanner
• Shabnam Thakrar
• Gabriella Therivel
• Simon Updegraff
• John Walther
• Roan Weiss
• Rebecca Winkler
• Benjamin Wu
• Sasha Zivin

The National Merit Scholarship Corporation is an Evanston-based not-for-profit that distributes three types of scholarships every year.

It awards corporate-sponsored scholarships, mostly reserved for the children of people who work for a participating businesses, to about 770 students. Every year, it also awards $2,500 cash to 2,500 students out of its own funds.

But students awarded college-sponsored scholarships comprise the largest group of scholarship winners. About 3,800 students receive anywhere from $500 and $2,000 a year for up to four year of undergraduate study at one of about 150 participating colleges and universities.

To qualify as a finalist and win one of the scholarships, National Merit semifinalists must submit a detailed application, including an essay and recommendation from a high school official.

About 95 percent of semifinalists generally make it to the finalist level, and then nearly half of them are expected to be awarded a scholarship. Each state is allocated a number of semifinalists proportional to its overall population.

Last fall, 36 members of New Trier High School's class of 2024 were named semifinalists. Of those, 11 were awarded scholarships.

The number of semifinalists from Loyola Academy stayed steady at five. A pair of seniors from Christian Heritage Academy in Northfield made it to the semifinal round, but no one from North Shore Country Day made the cut this year.

Earlier:

• 11th Member Of New Trier Of Class 2024 Wins National Merit Scholarship
• Wilmette Student Awarded National Merit Scholarship Sponsored By S&P
• 7 New Trier Students Awarded Cash Scholarships From National Merit
• 43 New Trier Area Students Named National Merit Semifinalists