2021 National Merit Semifinalists Named From Alexandria Schools

ALEXANDRIA, VA —Students from Alexandria area high schools have been named 2021 National Merit Scholarship semifinalists, taking the first step in securing a scholarship in the competitive program.

On Wednesday, the National Merit Scholarship Corporation announced approximately 16,000 semifinalists, representing less than one percent of high school seniors in the U.S. Over 1.5 million students were entered into the competition as juniors by taking the 2019 Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test. Semifinalists were the highest scoring entrants in each state, and the number chosen from each state is proportional to its share of graduating seniors in the U.S.

Here are the Alexandria students who have achieved semifinalist status:

Episcopal High School, Alexandria City

• Rachel Marsh

St. Stephen's and St. Agnes School, Alexandria City

• Alexandra G. Olsen
• Kaitlyn R. Whalen

West Potomac High School, Fairfax County

• Lauren E. Koelsch

T.C. Williams High School, Alexandria City

• Aiden R. Crowe
• Nikolai S. Kosinski
• Caroline H. Winakur

In addition, a long list of semifinalists were named from Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology, which has an Alexandria address in Fairfax County. The students' hometowns were not provided in the list of semifinalists. The magnet school accepts students from Fairfax County, as well as Arlington, Loudoun, and Prince William counties, and the cities of Fairfax and Falls Church.

The TJHSST students on the semifinalist list include:

Jaatani B. Abdi, Reevu Adakroy, Nedah Z. Ahmad, Ethan Ai, Lucy O. Alejandro, Alby S. Alex, Haytham A. Alsayed, Kamal Amirneni, Roja S. Ayyadurai, Maxwell B. Bai,
Subhiksha K. Balaji, Dhanush S. Banka, Molly K. Barron, Anais D. Beauvais, Aakanksha Bharadwaj,
Darika Bisht, Khushmeet K. Chandi, Aadith P. Charugundla, Jason T. Cheah, Andrew R. Chen,
Andy G. Chen, Emma Y. Cheng, Aryan R. Chinnala, Justin J. Choi, Anna Chung, Margaret H. Clarke, Peter V. Costescu, Rauna Daga, Frances A. Dai, Alexander S. Davis, Bharath Dileep Kumar,
Tammy Y. Ding, Derek H. Dong, Joel Eldo, Rubaiya R. Emran, Eden Ethington, Sophia J. Evanisko, Shanti Fewell, Daniel Fu, Mitali Gandhe, Vyomika J. Gandhi, Amber K. Garcha,
Patrick C. Gilles, Catherine Granum, Vihini S. Gunasekera, Meera Gupta, Richik Haldar,
Aidan G. Harbison, Nathan W. Harbison, Andy He, Daniel E. Healey, Kristen A. Heller, Stephen L. Huan, Joshua T. Huang, Aaliya Hussain, Akila Islam, Anisha Jain, Saahith Janapati, Tiffany J. Ji, Nathaniel H. Joachim, Riya A. Jones, Anuraag Kaashyap, Julia A. Kao-Sowa, Senna H. Keesing, Lauren N. Keffer, Eric J. Kim, Aditi S. Kodali, Aditvenkat K. Kolli, Vance E. Kreider, John J. Lee, Joshua Y. Lian, Joshua D. Lovejoy, Quentin C. Lovejoy, Thomas Y. Lu, Victoria Lu, Olivia Y. Ma, Tristan R. Ma, Vagul G. Mahadevan, Praneeth R. Malyala, Kelly Mao, Natalie C. Martin, Qingyu Meng, Pranav Mishra, Yullee Moon, Timothy C. Mooney, Charles D. Muldoon, Udbhav Muthakana, Kari Naga, Ganesh S. Nanduru, Lauren A. Nathan, Ethan T. Nguyen, Whitman A. Ochiai, Abhinav R. Palicherla, Adit Pareek, Daniel J. Park, Somasekhar R. Patil, John A. Pendergrass, Katherine Phan, Marian Qian, Abhirama Rachabattuni, Sahiti Rachakonda, Vikram V. Raghu, Anand Ramaka, Sahana U. Ramesh, Avik S. Rao, Ronith R. Reddy, Emerson G. Rodriguez, Connie G. Ryu, Siddharth P. Shah, Avani Sharma, Austin J. Shi, Shivam Singh, Lilia Smith, Seungwan Son, Neha R. Sripathi, Alexander G. Suh, Nathan H. Suh, Alexander L. Talamonti, Aaishi R. Uppuluri, Teja Valluri, Nishitha Vattikonda, Varun Vejalla, Eamon R. Weingold, Maxwell J. White, Charles H. Wu, David W. Xiang, Miranda Xiong, Jason B. Xu, Julia S. Yang, James Ye, Daniel R. Zeng, Alex Y. Zhang.

About 15,000 semifinalists are expected to advance to finalist standing, and over half of the finalists will win about 7,600 National Merit Scholarships worth more than $30 million next spring. To be considered as a finalist, semifinalists must submit a detailed scholarship application with information about the student's academic record, participation in school and community activities, demonstrated leadership abilities, employment, and honors and awards received.

The semifinalist must demonstrate an outstanding academic record throughout high school, be endorsed and recommended by a high school official, and write an essay. Scholarship winners will be chosen based on their skills, accomplishments, and potential for success in rigorous college studies.

There are three kinds of scholarships finalists will compete for, corporate-sponsored, college or university-sponsored and National Merit Scholarship Corporation awards. The National Merit Scholarship Corporation's own $2500 Scholarships will be awarded to 2,500 students on a state-representational basis. Around 1,000 corporate-sponsored scholarships will be provided by about 220 corporations and business organizations for students who meet their criteria. For example, the criteria may include being children of an employee at the sponsoring business or residents of communities where the business has locations or offices. Around 180 colleges and universities are expected to fund about 4,100 awards for finalists who will attend their school.

Winners will be announced in four groups between April and July 2021.