Poway Student Is Candidate For Presidential Scholars Program

POWAY, CA — Forty-one students in San Diego County are in the running for the distinguished 2021 U.S. Presidential Scholars Program, including Poway High School student Evan Asakawa.

These are the San Diego area students in the running:

• Jivan D. Achar, San Diego - Canyon Crest Academy
• Evan J. Asakawa, Poway - Poway High School
• Catrina L. Brunkow, San Diego - River Valley High School
• Richard Q. Chao, La Jolla - La Jolla High School
• Claire D. Chung, San Diego - Rancho Bernardo High School
• Aditi Dutta, San Diego - Scripps Ranch High School
• Michael Effie Jr., El Cajon - Unknown High School
• Daniel E. Elconin, San Diego - Unknown High School
• Jessie L. Gan, San Diego - Unknown High School
• Arjun P. Ghoshal, San Diego - Del Norte High School
• David L. He, San Diego - Canyon Crest Academy
• Nomi Heidari-Bateni, San Diego - Rancho Bernardo High School
• Saeji Hong, San Diego - Torrey Pines High School
• Cadence L. Hsu, San Diego - Torrey Pines High School
• Andrew S. Jia, San Diego - Westview High School
• Jasmine T. Jungreis, San Diego - Torrey Pines High School
• Omkaar Kulkarni, San Diego - Del Norte High School
• Heidi Q. Lau, San Diego - Westview High School
• Austin M. Li, San Diego - Westview High School
• Emily Liang, Encinitas - San Dieguito High School Academy
• Lucas H. Liu, San Diego - Torrey Pines High School
• Syon Z. Mansur, San Diego - Canyon Crest Academy
• Aditya A. Mavalankar, San Diego - Rancho Bernardo High School
• Nicholas O. Pai, San Diego - Francis W. Parker School
• Eric M. Pan, San Diego - The Bishop's School
• Kevin Park, La Jolla – La Jolla High School
• Ravi Pathak, Carlsbad - Carlsbad High School
• Grant C. Pauker, La Jolla - La Jolla High School
• Jeremy A. Potter, San Diego - Helix High School
• Evan T. Ren, San Diego - The Bishop's School
• Brian H. Slonim, San Diego - Canyon Crest Academy
• Emily Tianshi, San Diego - Unknown High School
• Jeffrey G. Wang, San Diego - The Bishop's School
• Skyler E. Williams, Del Mar - Canyon Crest Academy
• Alexis J. Wu, San Diego - Canyon Crest Academy
• Michael Wu, San Diego - Westview High School
• Sophie Wu, San Diego - Canyon Crest Academy
• Sunny Xiao, San Diego - Canyon Crest Academy
• Joshua Z. You, San Diego - Del Norte High School
• Allen Zhang, San Diego - Westview High School
• Cynthia Zhang, San Diego - Del Norte High School

The program was established by an executive order from former President Lyndon B. Johnson in 1964, according to a news release from the U.S. Presidential Scholars Office. It recognizes accomplished high school seniors for their efforts.

Students are variously honored for their accomplishments in the arts, career and technical fields, and more broadly, academic achievement.

Panelists will review applications from the 4,500 candidates in early April and select 600 semifinalists. Finalists will be named in May.

Up to 161 students are named as U.S. Presidential Scholars each year.

More than 7,500 U.S. Presidential Scholars have been recognized since the program's inception.

See the full list of candidates here.