2025 WA National Merit Scholarship semifinalist students announced

The National Merit Scholarship Corporation has named more than 300 Washington students as semifinalists in its annual scholarship program.

The state’s semifinalists join roughly 16,000 students from around the country with the highest scores on the 2023 PSAT, a standardized test taken by high school juniors that helps qualify them for the award.

About 95% of the semifinalists nationwide are expected to be named finalists in February. To achieve that status, students must provide information about their academic record and extracurricular activities, write an essay and earn SAT or ACT scores that confirm their earlier performance on the PSAT. 

Finalists are eligible for the 6,870 scholarships worth nearly $26 million offered in the spring by the National Merit Scholarship Corporation, corporations and business organizations, and colleges and universities.

Here are the semifinalists from Washington:

ANACORTES

Anacortes H.S.: Minnick, Rowan

AUBURN

Thomas Jefferson H.S.: Heo, Nash

BAINBRIDGE ISLAND

Bainbridge H.S.: Cole, Aidan; Kuykendall, Evan; Oestreich, Theodore; Tappen, Joseph

Homeschool / Online School: Dodson, Maxwell

Hyla School: Cramer, Carson

BELLEVUE

Bellevue H.S.: Hsueh, Evan; Ngo, Kayla; Zhang, Owen

Interlake H.S.: Badre Narayan, Vaahini; Bhattacharya, Reetam; Bhattacharya, Rittik; Duddupudi, Rithvik; Gupta, Daksh; Jiang, Aidan; Kang, Inue; Keselman, Shimon; Kim, Matthias;  Ko, Caden; Lee, Eric; Li, Youyi; Liu, Chen; Lu, Daniel; Luo, Sichen; Sharma, Ashwika; Singh, Parnika; Soria, Daniel; Wang, Dorah; Zhang, Raymon; Zhou, Alex

International School: Bloch, Nathanael; Nathani-Sim, Sasha

Newport H.S.: Cai, Andrew; Cao, Andrew; Chen, Ryan; Choi, Daniel; Fong, Christopher; Ha, Alexander; Han, Rachel; Huang, Steven; Li, Eugene; Li, Maxwell; Luo, Brandon; Ni, Jessica Ouyang, Junhan; Pai, Andrew; Prabhath, Aadithya; Shao, Victoria; Tran, Duong; Wu, Allen; Xu, Katie; Xu, Sophia; Yin, Aiden; Zhou, Audrey; Zou, Blake Xianming

Sammamish H.S.: Eng, Joseph

BELLINGHAM

Sehome H.S.: Liu, Fengyou; Resnick, Oliver Z.; Thompson, Jina L.

BOTHELL

Bothell H.S.: Gu, Jack; Singh, Saksham; Subramanian, Saanvi

Cedar Park Christian School: Kramer, Scarlett

Innovation Lab H.S.: Song, Qiyuan

North Creek H.S.: Boschee, Joseph; Chang, Caitlyn; Woon, Tien-Chern

CAMAS 

Camas H.S.: Vo, Logan; Xie, Alan

Union H.S.: Deming, Brian

CARNATION

Riverview Learning Center: Stivers, Oliver

EDMONDS

Edmonds-Woodway H.S:. Beehler, Emerson; Branch, Simon; Icasiano, Marcus; Lim, Ryan; Zhao, Nathan

EVERETT

Mariner H.S.: Weiher, Vincent

Archbishop Murphy H.S.: Koo, Laine

ISSAQUAH

Issaquah H.S.: Cao, Keith B.; Cornell, Nikolas W.; Hu, Katie J.; Jeong, Jason E.; Kapoor, Salloni; Li, Evan H.; Long, Jennie; Lu, Jingxuan

KENMORE

Inglemoor H.S.: Cao, Christopher; Chang, Derek; Cheng, Kairui; Datar, Sanika; Epshtein, Matthew; He, William; Meng, Claire; Spassova, Monica; Subramanian, Vaishnavi; Wang, Weiju

KENNEWICK 

Kamiakin H.S.: Parker, Lyla

KENT

Kentridge H.S.: Unger, Owen S.

KIRKLAND

Eastside Preparatory School: Kulkarni, Tanmay; Nair, Arya; Park-Weber, Maya; Shen, Yile; Singhal, Anvika; Wu, Dylan; Yang, Audrey; Zhu, Angela

Homeschool / Online School: Vidwans, Sanat

International Community School: Yu, Angelina; Zhen, Jasmine

Juanita H.S.: Arasada, Sri Sai Meenakshi; Dobrev, Zara; Harrington, Cate; Longcore, Thomas; Zou, Wenjuan

Lake Washington H.S.: Kelley, Rachel; Mattam, Ashwika; McKay, Zachary; Michailov, Robert; Verma, Sakshi

LACEY

Homeschool / Online School: Froehlich, Mila

LAKE STEVENS

Lake Stevens H.S.: Lapin, Georgiy S.

LEAVENWORTH

Cascade H.S.: Menna, Caroline

MAPLE VALLEY

Tahoma H.S.: Lee, Christian T.; Mickley Sabrina E.

MERCER ISLAND

Mercer Island H.S.: Grove, Elisabeth N.; Hillberg, Jack A.; Hockley, Trevor C.; Hounsell, Rhett W.; Huang, Allison; Krishnaswamy, Ashwin; Liu, Andrew Z.; Loiselle, Sophia E.; Waingold, Ari R. 

MILL CREEK

Henry M. Jackson H.S.: Chebiyyam, Sudhir; Deshpande, Dhruv; Karthik, Shreya; Krishna, Nidhi; Perrin, Whittaker; Roopesh, Advait

MOUNTLAKE TERRACE

Mountlake Terrace H.S.: Sandwick, Bridget L.

MUKILTEO

Kamiak H.S.: Choi, Kaden; Leger, Matthew; Loza, Aiden

OLYMPIA

Olympia H.S.: Elsner, Basil L.; Smitherman, Zoe M.

Olympia Regional Learning Academy: Kreuter, Oliver

POULSBO

North Kitsap H.S.: Bottoms, Mannix; Hart, Gillian

PULLMAN

Homeschool / Online School: Miyasaka, Tokuji L.

Pullman H.S.: Liu, Charles

PUYALLUP

Cascade Christian School: Schumacher, Alec

REDMOND

The Bear Creek School: Studebaker, Caroline G.

Homeschool / Online School: Li, Enni

The Overlake School: Arora, Anjika; Bian, Canran; Blendea, Robert; Cui, Anthony; Gottumukkala, Ruhi; Hines, Oliver; Leung-Kaplan, Emily; Liu, Bert; Peng, Peishan; Rasmussen, Dahlia; Zhu, Ruikuan

Redmond H.S.: Bezbaruah, Ananya; Bhargava, Varnika; Goheen, Abigail; Huang, Joyce; Iyer, Krishna; Leung, Mimi; Luo, Yuwan; Muthuplakal, Noel Prince; Nagvekar, Arya; Sethuraman, Aparajitha; Shi, Maxwell; Suresh, Ramya; Tok, Tian Ci Nathaniel; Zhang, Sophie

Nikola Tesla STEM H.S.: Agrawal, Achintya; Arvind, Rajiv; Atmakuri, Bhanu V.; Bhargava, Saharsh; Chung, Ryan; Iyer, Keshav G.; James, Elizabeth K.; Kannepalli, Pranav; Koppolu, Aishika; Li, Keying; Lodha, Sarthak; Long, Reese; Mihaylova, Nicole N.; Ramachandran, Megha; Saravanan, Sacchin; Sundaram, Rohit; Trivedi, Kaavya; Vaish, Anisha; Wheeler, Edison A.; Yang, Shuhui; Zhao, Marilyn R.

RENTON

Liberty H.S.: Chiu, Jonathan T.; Di, Alan Z.; Di, Sophie Z.; Kollarmalil, Rachel M.; Pillai, Sanat; Rubenstein, Tyler A.

Charles A. Lindbergh H.S.: Rudisill, Isaac N.

RICHLAND

Hanford H.S.: Shen, Colin; Xu, Audrey Z.

RIDGEFIELD

Ridgefield H.S.: Siddiqua, Mahnoor

SAMMAMISH

Eastlake H.S.: Adhikari, Sambriddhi; Annamraju, Vaishnavi; Barde, Arin; Cajigas, Colin; Chi, Tiana; Dickman, Christopher; Gorbatov, Daniel; Kaiser, Elliot; Li, Yixin; Lin, Marvin; Narayan, Shriya; Pradeep Narayan, Manya; Prakash, Ananya; Ragoler, Alon; Saggese, Gonzalo; Sarathy, Dhaya; Sharma, Nikita; Sharma, Sneha; Sikaria, Maanav; Wang, Hongning; Yang, Chujia

Eastside Catholic H.S.: Sanghi, Aryan; Thapa, Ayush; Wissner, Dylan

Skyline H.S.: Borole, Saahil H.; Daoed, Fareyl Z.; Go, Ethan Matthew W.; John, Kiran J.; Joshi, Atharva N.; King, Nathan A.; Liao, Daniel; Lu, Andrew; Marwaha, Krish; Munoz-King, Ana F.; Patel, Anjali M.; Sathyanarayanan, Nilesh; Tang, Jinyi; Xu, William J.; Zhang, Jaret J.

SEATTLE

Ballard H.S.: Jenkins, Ruth E.; Koll-Williams, Alfie L.; Lyster, Cole F.; Young, Holland K.

The Bush School: Champagne, Teoman

Downtown School – Lakeside School: Kaufman, Iris; Pugh, Annabelle

Garfield H.S.: Oh, Paloma S.

Holy Names Academy: Kwok, Anna

Ingraham H.S.: Buergel, Madeleine E.; Small, Ana K.; Welch, Isabella G.

Lakeside School: Barr, Jackson H.; Bevins, Matthew R.; Brown, Natalie L.; Bui, Asher K.; Chen, Nara S.; Concepcion, Anabelle; Dauber, Mason H.; Derstadt, Sadye E.; Dhillon, Rohan H.; Dong, Janet Y.; Felten, Anna E.; Frasca, Anne; Gebregziabher, Lael; Hong, Isabel; Kincaid, Isabel M.; Kolenski, Drew; Lamble, Miles M.; Miller, Mattias L.; Mudge-Burns, Gabriel A.; Sailer, Samiya; Schuler, Miles D.; Shepler, Lia E.; Tang, Iris; Tangirala, Aanika; Vangala, Agastya; Walsh, Anjali E.; Wang, Amy; Wang, Daniel Z.; Williams, Kellan N.; Zhou, Lily; Zhu, Henry Z.

Lincoln H.S.: Baernstein, Cleo K.; Demberel, Hanbilig A.; Gharib, Ava; Hanscom, Levi; Hirschfeld, Caleb D;. Kelly, Fiona B.; Luebbe, Finnian T.; McLain, Colm J.; Thaler, Raphael G.

The Northwest School: Peiper, Ian

Roosevelt H.S.: West, Matthew J.

West Seattle H.S.:  Erickson, Aria N.; Wade, Ryan J.

Seattle Preparatory School: Barros, Isabella; Park, Jasper; Paulus, Jonah

Summit Sierra: Ayers, Spencer C.

Transition School and Early Entrance Program: Jain, Navya; Kurapati, Sathvik

University Preparatory Academy: Oliver, Mian; Ye, Kathryn

SHORELINE

Homeschool / Online School: Own, Charlotte L.

Shorecrest H.S.: Howson, Aila; Krawczyk, Elliot; McCallister, Jack

Shorewood H.S.: Alam, Raphael; Irish, Benjamin

SILVERDALE

Klahowya Secondary School: Rogers, Quinn

SNOHOMISH

Glacier Peak H.S.: Koppenol, Jonathan T.

SNOQUALMIE

Mount Si H.S.: Bartholomew, James E.; Cai, Richard J.; Luo, Benjamin J.; Natarajan, Liam

SPOKANE

Gonzaga Preparatory School: Deibert, Adele

Mead H.S.: Koh, Livia

TACOMA

Fife H.S.: Khanuja, Armaan

Idea H.S.: Rasmey, Sokpich

Silas H.S.: Kim, Aaron

Tacoma Science and Math Institute: Muller, Joseph

Charles Wright Academy: Hu, Brent

Annie Wright School: Paik, Ju-ah

TUKWILA

Raisbeck Aviation H.S.: Evans, Sam G.; Kim, Greta E.; Russo, Vincenzo L.

UNIVERSITY PLACE

Curtis H.S.: Bosh, Lincoln R.; Sung, Gloria

VANCOUVER

King’s Way H.S.: Crider, Sarah

Henrietta Lacks Health and Bioscience H.S.: Decker, Layla M.

Skyview H.S.: Pryor, Everett M.; Traverspowers, Jonah J.

Vancouver School of Arts and Academics: Crain-Keddie, Elishiya

VASHON

Vashon Island H.S.: Hughes, Theo M.

VERADALE

Central Valley H.S:  Lodge, Andrew

WALLA WALLA

Walla Walla H.S.: Yao, Matthew J.

WOODINVILLE

Woodinville H.S.: Baerwald, Dan; Bensen, Bianca; Davis, Calder; Liang, Cindy; Mehta, Jishnu; Pascual, Ryan; Reed, Elisa; Reinholdtsen, Daniel; Wahl, Ava

YAKIMA

A. C. Davis H.S.: Harper, Wilson E.