146 National Merit Semifinalists In The Hudson Valley For 2024

HUDSON VALLEY, NY — The National Merit Scholarship Corporation announced the names of over 16,000 semifinalists in the 69th annual National Merit Scholarship Program Wednesday, including 146 from high schools in the Hudson Valley.

These high school seniors have an opportunity to continue in the competition for some 7,140 National Merit Scholarships worth nearly $28 million that will be offered next spring.

They entered the 2023 National Merit Scholarship Program as juniors by taking the 2022 Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test (PSAT/NMSQT®), which served as an initial screen of program entrants. The group, representing less than one percent of U.S. high school seniors, includes the highest-scoring entrants in each state.

The number of semifinalists in a state is proportional to the state’s percentage of the national total of graduating seniors.

To be considered for a Merit Scholarship® award, semifinalists must fulfill several requirements to advance to the Finalist level of the competition. About 95 percent of the semifinalists are expected to attain finalist standing, and about half of the finalists will win a National Merit Scholarship, earning the Merit Scholar® title.

NMSC, a not-for-profit organization that operates without government assistance, was
established in 1955 specifically to conduct the annual National Merit Scholarship Program.
Scholarships are underwritten by NMSC with its own funds and by approximately 320 business
organizations and higher education institutions that share NMSC’s goals of honoring the nation’s
scholastic champions and encouraging the pursuit of academic excellence.

The local semifinalists:

ARDSLEY

Ardsley High School

• Cabezas, Liana R.
• Lobl, Liam N.
• Lung, Lydia
• Mallapu, Akhilesh
• Sanchez, Aaron R.
• Xu, Derek

ARMONK

Byram Hills High School

• Brown, Samara E.
• Lestz, Aaron J.
• Ndocaj, Daniel
• Woodworth, Alexander H.
• Yang, Yicheng

BEDFORD

Homeschool

• Sharma, Divya

BRIARCLIFF MANOR

Briarcliff High School

• Berger, Joseph A.
• Gupta, Gautam
• Kelmendi, Rian
• Kuhn, James P.
• Solomon, Mirabel K.
• Unger, Benjamin J.
• Zhao, Colin L.

BRONXVILLE

Bronxville High School

• Krause, Frannie M.
• Mandapati, Rohit
• McCarthy, Quentin R.
• Tarwala, Devavrat

CARMEL

Carmel High School

• Martinez, Vincent A.

CENTRAL VALLEY

Monroe Woodbury High School

• Buragohain, Anushree

CHAPPAQUA

Horace Greeley High School

• Cao, Anwen
• Cressman, Ian E.
• Kidde, Cameron D.
• Kim, Daniel
• Lewinter, Aidan R.
• Nayudu, Reshmita
• Roy, Neel G.
• Troob, Alexa R.
• Weddle, Cassidy
• Yu, Lionel

COLD SPRING

Haldane High School

• Kottman, Helena O.

CORTLANDT MANOR

Walter Panas High School

• Easaw, Johan G.

CROSS RIVER

John Jay High School

• Cai, Alice J.

DOBBS FERRY

The Masters School

• Meyer, Theo A.

EASTCHESTER

Eastchester High School

• Ghosh, Mahima
• Petrie, Anselma O.

Tuckahoe High School

• Swenson, Emily L.

HARRISON

Harrison High School

• Jonisch, Emma
• Remeza, Alissa

HARTSDALE

The Leffell School

• Yellin, Nathaniel J.

HASTINGS-ON-HUDSON

Hastings High School

• Baldassarre, Justin
• Burdick, Robert
• DePreist-Sullivan, Hazel
• Goldman-Wetzler, Jacob
• Lasser, Sonya
• Linder, Owen
• Wang, Zixuan

HIGHLAND

Highland High School

• Dong, Alice

HIGHLAND FALLS

James I. O'Neill High School

• Lemler, Grant

HOPEWELL JUNCTION

John Jay High School

• Mohammed, Naflah F.
• Zhu, Alex D.

IRVINGTON

Irvington High School

• Ma, Maxwell Y.

KINGSTON H. S.

• Dong, Peter
• Safford, Alexi

MAMARONECK

French American School of New York

• Cooper, Charles C.
• Peschard Rioboo, Bernardo

Mamaroneck High School

• Sodickson, Noah G.

MONTROSE

Hendrick Hudson High School

• Wright, George

NANUET

Nanuet High School

• Mehta, Arnav

NEW PALTZ

New Paltz Central High School

• Eyler, Mason M.

NEW ROCHELLE
New Rochelle High School

• Weisner, Eileen D.
• Yu, Veronica

NYACK

Nyack High School

• Anderton, Ella G.

OSSINING

Ossining High School

• Cong, Thomas Y.
• Yu, Candice J.

PEARL RIVER

Pearl River High School

• Caro, Emily A.
• Treanor, Matthew J.

PELHAM

Pelham Memorial High School

• Blackburn, James H.
• Koff, Benjamin N.
• Luce, Brooke E.
• Pearlman, Padraig F.

PINE BUSH

Pine Bush High School

• Valentino, Saige A.

PLEASANTVILLE

Pleasantville High School

• Tsang, Dillon

POUGHKEEPSIE

Spackenkill High School

• Daley, Caelyn A.
• Lu, Sarah

RED HOOK

Red Hook Central High School

• Ostfeld, Benjamin K.

RHINEBECK

Rhinebeck Central School

• Alam, Laila S.

RYE

Rye Country Day School

• Boester, Rhodes F.
• Davidson, Connor L.
• Feng, Ronald
• Garcia-Tunon, Maximilian
• Maini, Ayush M.
• McIntosh, Aidan D.
• Noronha, Neil T.
• Xiao, Ethan
• Zhang, Andrew
• Zhou, Jefferson

Rye High School

• Harrigan, Jeffrey P.
• Yamaguchi, Dan N.

RYE BROOK

Blind Brook High School

• Chen, Fiona
• Laterza, Matthew
• Lu, Austin J.
• Otero, Joaquin G.
• Wang, Derek

SCARSDALE

Edgemont High School

• Brinberg, Henry
• Gopalkrishna, Bhavani
• Jabbour, Isabella
• Kaeding, Eliza M.
• Lau, Kristen E.
• Liang, Iris
• Liu, Jiahe
• Merzon, Alexander J.
• Merzon, Evan D.
• Singh, Avantika
• Stern, Fiona
• Sun, Derek
• Woo, Sophia S.
• Yeo, Donghyun D.

Scarsdale High School

• Breslow, Nathan H.
• Chen, Patrick P.
• Chung, Bryan
• Daniel, Kevin V.
• Huang, Bryanna
• Huang, David R.
• Jiang, Adelina
• Koch, Harley J.
• Kong, Allegra
• Kornfeld, Thomas E.
• Kronenberg, Thomas R.
• Lee, Janghee
• Liu, Jihao
• Lulgjuraj, Apollonia F.
• Makrakis Toniolo, Arianna
• Malik, Raza
• Mehta, Sajiv
• Peng, Thomas F.
• Pereira, Natasha R.
• Pillai, Tara M.
• Rizk, Alexander
• Rode, Leon J.
• Sung, Yejin
• Yang, Cayden

SUFFERN

Suffern High School

• Koreen, Ezra

TARRYTOWN

Hackley School

• Abrahms, Phoebe J.
• Kelsey, Harper
• Mital, Nevin
• Sanders, Samuel B.
• Taylor, Noah A.

WAPPINGERS FALLS

Roy C. Ketcham High School

• Newman, Richard

WARWICK

Warwick Valley High School

• Gell, Ava R.

YORKTOWN HEIGHTS

Yorktown High School

• Whalen, Julia F.