List: Houston Seniors Named Merit Scholarship Semi-Finalists

Several Houston students have been named semi-finalists for the 2020 National Merit Scholarship Program.

The semi-finalists were announced on Wednesday and include approximately 16,000 high-school seniors that will go on to compete for the scholarships that will be offered next spring. According to a press release from the National Merit Scholarship Program, over 90 percent of the semi-finalists will be named as finalists for the scholarship. Of those finalists, about half will win a scholarship.

More than 1.5 million students applied for the highly competitive scholarship and the semi-finalists represent less than 1 percent of all high-school seniors in the U.S. For each state, the number of semi-finalists is proportional to that state’s percentage of the total graduating seniors in the country.

Here are the Houston semi-finalists for the scholarship:

AWTY INTERNATIONAL SCHOOL
Alawami, Mohammed A.
Sewani, Maham
Tu, Ashlyn
Xu, Doris J.
Young, Lawrence Z.

BELLAIRE H. S.
Anand, Kaarthik
Benner, Carson M.
Chen, Chu
Ding, Lucy M.
Girardet, Thomas P.
Huttenbach, Steven H.
Huynh, Vanessa
Kodali, Meghana D.
Pantazopol, Alexander T.
Pina, Tyzic L.
Pustilnik, Elijah J.
Remels, Adam M.
Sun, Justin M.
Szafranski, Sarah G.
Tong, Eric
Way, Jacob D.
Wehrung, Gabriella M.
Woodard, Christopher M.
Xu, Raymond Z.
Yuan, Yuanjing

EPISCOPAL H. S.
Ogle, Carolyn Q.

POST OAK SCHOOL
Richardson, Hunter T.

CARNEGIE VANGUARD H. S.
Bajic, Pavle
Burudgunte, Arnav
Girotra, Ankush
He, Adam Q.
Hsu, Isabella K.
Huang, Macy
Lee, Daniel Z.
Liu, Ruth
Lu, Claire
Menon, Rahul
Nguyen, Michelle T.
Tadikonda, Aneesha

CLEAR HORIZONS EARLY
COLLEGE H. S.
Jagrup, Acer Josiah H.
Siddiqi, Rahan M.

CLEAR LAKE H. S.
Cacciatore, Michael T.

Contreras, Emiliano J.
Gao, Sufei
Ho, Carl B.
Ji, Evan
Kumar, Ishan V.
Parthasarathy, Abinand K.
Vicary, Rebecca A.
Wong, Yan Ru
Wu, Deanna

CYPRESS CREEK H. S.
Abbasi, Hasan S.

CYPRESS FALLS H. S.
Siboyeh, Jacob A.

CYPRESS RIDGE H. S.
Narayan, Neel S.

MICHAEL E. DE BAKEY H. S. FOR
HEALTH PROFESSIONS
Dang, Kevin T.
Hsyung, Ivana J.
Jin, Edward T.
Nguyen, Chloe E.

EMERY - WEINER SCHOOL
Kourchev, Alexander G.

ENERGY INSTITUTE H. S.
McGlothlin, Jackson P.
Page, Kai B.

HARMONY SCIENCE ACADEMY
Ribes, Alex J.

HOMESCHOOL
Ho, Quynh
Roehr, Andrew J.
Scherer, William

HOUSTON CHRISTIAN H. S.
McClure, Hannah K.
Schulz, Randall L.

INCARNATE WORD ACADEMY
Buchwald, Isabel U.

JERSEY VILLAGE H. S.
Nguyen, Jane N.

KINDER H. S. FOR THE
PERFORMING AND VISUAL ARTS
Canepa, Gabriel F.
Evered, Chloe R.
Lansangan, Gabrielle V.
Miller, Olivia G.
Reid, Elena D.

KINKAID SCHOOL
Busa, Sasha A.
Frumovitz, Jonathan C.
Hafner-Schnee, Duncan S.
Huston, Meredith L.
Krishnamoorti, Ayush J.
Mehta, Shreya
Mineo, Evelyn C.
Munsif, Nikita S.
Rubinson, Noah A.
Srinivasan, Tanmay
Thompson, Sapphire K.
Xu, Brian Z.

MIRABEAU B. LAMAR H. S.
Jafar-Nejad, Neema

LANGHAM CREEK H. S.
Nathani, Alia I.
Tang, Chloe A.

MEMORIAL H. S.
Beck, Parker E.
Buckingham, Blakeley M.
Cabour, Tehani K.
Czelusta, Noah H.
Grimes, John W.
Jagetia, Rishab
Kim, Jennifer
Lee, Grace J.
Lorentzatos, Luke F.
Park, Joseph S.
Qin, Andrew Y.

Rudic, Tess
Tran, Megan T.
Westenhaver, James P.
Yue, Melonie

ST. AGNES ACADEMY
Chaouch, Lilia C.
Jaaskelainen, Maya L.
Jimenez, Ana T.
Wisdom, Ella C.

ST. JOHN'S SCHOOL
Aguilar, Aidan S.
Andrews, Isabelle R.
Balakrishnan, Sambhu M.
Bouchard, Andre T.
Chevray, Yukiko M.
Curtin, John D.
Doughty, Ryan D.
Grannen, Thomas G.
Heijmen, Jackson K.
Jackson, William M.
Kelliher, Fleming O.
Lu, Sam
Mangal, Reeti
Moore, Clara J.
Morgan, Colton G.
Mott, Sinclair M.
Perkins, Gabrielle C.
Price, Abigail J.
Pulaski, Leila R.
Ring, Marina Z.
Shelburne, Catherine P.
Shelburne, Margaret L.
Tong, Andrew
Trautner, Mark K.
VanLoh, Mary L.
Waters, Sacha L.
Wei, William J.

ST. THOMAS EPISCOPAL SCHOOL
Arya, Snehaa
Darmadi, Matthew L.

ST. THOMAS H. S.
Held, Harrison W.
McCoy, Grant M.

STRAKE JESUIT
COLLEGE PREPARATORY
Artlip, Michael V.
Camacho, Benjamin J.
Carlson, Alexander D.
Condron, Robert D.
Fernandes, Nathaniel J.

STRATFORD H. S.
Jeon, Bo Kyung
Leif, Adam S.
Moon, Sydni E.
Oliphant, Caleb
Wu, Catherine

VILLAGE SCHOOL
Goli, Pavithr S.
Gupta, Vaani
Khatri, Divyesh
Mathew, Leyah M.

WESTBURY CHRISTIAN H. S.
Wang, Yuyao

WESTSIDE H. S.
Abdalla, Hanade
Hamed, Yasin Y.
Tijerina, Andre S.

YES PREP PUBLIC SCHOOLS
- SOUTHEAST
Luna, Fabian

To become a finalist, the program explains that students and a high-school official must submit a detailed application. The application must contain information about a student’s academic record, leadership abilities, the honors and awards they’ve received and more.

Students will find out in February whether they make it to the finalist stage. The scholarship winners will be announced beginning in April 2020.