National Merit Semifinalists Named From Fairfax Area

FAIRFAX CITY, VA — A total of 39 local high school seniors from Fairfax County and Fairfax City are among the 16,000 semifinalists named for the 2020 National Merit Scholarship competition.

They include a home-school student, David B. Bryant, from Fairfax Station, and students from six area high schools (listed below), according to a recent announcement from the National Merit Scholarship Corporation.

CENTREVILLE H.S.

• Ga Won Choi
• Raymond A. Del Vecchio
• Michael J. Kim
• Christine Park
• Grace Shim
• Revanth K. Vejju

CHANTILLY H.S.

• Rithika Balguri
• Yifan Chen
• Gayatri Chintala
• Timothy K. Koh
• Madeleine R. LeBeau
• Angelina J. Lu
• Thomas James C. Maher
• Anastasia Obernberger
• Joshua S. Pak
• Justin H. Park
• Shreya Tripathy

FAIRFAX H.S.

• Vishwa Arun
• Aashish Gullanki
• Isha Melige
• Lara E. Nayar
• Anthony N. Nguyen
• Ryan D. Phillips
• Melissa G. Trivett

ROBINSON SECONDARY SCHOOL

• Vedant Balu
• Josephine M. George
• Pristina N. Koon

WESTFIELD H.S.

• Nathaniel H. Jun

W.T. WOODSON H.S.

• Bridget K. Cassata
• Ishan G. Kalburge
• Khang Le
• Ethan Minyoung Lee
• Catherine C. Liu
• Jenny J. Park
• Jessica M. Suh
• Pratistha Timilsina
• Samuel M. Wright
• Zhiyao Zhang

The 16,000 nationwide semifinalists were selected from 1.5 million high school juniors who took the Preliminary SAT in 2018. The highest scoring students, now seniors, were selected from each state.

About 15,000 of these students are expected to advance to the finalist level. Applicants must submit a scholarship application detailing their academic record, participation in school and community activities, leadership abilities, employment, honors and awards.

A recommendation from a high school official and essay are part of the application. Students also must receive scores on the SAT or ACT reinforcing their performance on the PSAT.

From April to July 2020, scholarship winners will be chosen from the finalists. Types of scholarships include about 1,000 corporate-sponsored awards, about 4,100 college and university sponsored-awards and 2,500 of the National Merit Scholarship Corp.'s own $2,500 awards.

Patch Editor Emily Leayman contributed to this story.