National Merit Scholarships: 9 Loudoun Students Are Winners

LOUDOUN COUNTY, VA — 9 students from Loudoun County are winners of the second round of the National Merit Scholarship, which awards $2500 to recipients.

For each state, the number of winners is proportional to the state’s percentage of the nation’s graduating high school seniors. The program says the winners are the finalists “judged to have the strongest combination of accomplishments, skills and potential for success in rigorous college studies.”

More than 1.5 million students applied for the highly competitive scholarship and the program says that around 7,500 students will go on to win scholarships in 2021 that total $30 million. Winners of the college-sponsored scholarship will be announced in June and July.

Here are the winners of the $2,500 scholarships from Ashburn:

• Bharath Dileep Kumar
  • Probable career field: Medicine
  • High school: Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology
• Amber K. Garcha
  
  • Probable career field: Computer science
  • High school: Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology
• Richik Haldar
  • Probable career field: Chemical engineering
  • High school: Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology
• Jonah S. Han
  
  • Probable career field: Nanotechnology
  • High school: Independence High School
• Saahith Janapati
  
  • Probable career field: Computer science
  • High school: Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology
• Millie B. Pandya
  
  • Probable career field: Healthcare
  • High school: Rock Ridge High School
• Pallavi J. Vemuri
  
  • Probable career field: Medicine
  • High school: Rock Ridge High School

There were also students from Leesburg and Purcellville who were selected as National Merit Scholarship winners.

• Courtney B. Maynard from Leesburg
  • Probable career field: Law
  • High school: Riverside High School
• Brian A. Minnick from Purcellville
  
  • Probable career field: Aerospace Engineering
  • High school: Loudoun Valley High School

A total of 16,000 students were selected as finalists for the scholarships and the final winners are candidates “judged to have the strongest combination of academic skills and achievements, extracurricular accomplishments, and potential for success in rigorous college studies.”