List of 2021 National Merit Scholarship Semifinalists In Los Angeles County

The National Merit Scholarship Corporation announced on Sept. 9 its 2021 list of semifinalist high school students who will compete for a share of 7,600 scholarships worth more than $30 million. Winners of the 66th annual competition will be announced nationally between April and July next year.

High school juniors in about 21,000 high schools in the United States entered the academic competition by taking the 2019 Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test.

The highest-scoring students in each state represent the pool of semifinalists who, according to the National Merit Scholarship Corporation, represent less than 1% of United States high school seniors.

The next step for a semifinalist to become a finalist is to complete the required application that includes their academic record, an essay and a letter of recommendation by a high school official.

Finalists are then chosen on the basis of academic record, their participation in community and school activities, how they have demonstrated leadership ability, employment and awards and honors received.

From a group of about 16,000 semifinalists, an expected 15,000 advance to finalists. Students will be notified in February if they are finalists and half of those win a scholarship.

The National Merit Scholarship winners, chosen on the basis of accomplishments, skills and potential for college success, are selected from this last group. Winners are notified, on a rolling basis, from April to July in 2021.

Three types are scholarships are awarded including

• National Merit $2500 Scholarships (one of 2,500 available)
• Corporate-sponsored awards (provided by corporations and business organizations for finalists who meet their specified criteria, such as children of the grantor’s employees or residents of communities where sponsor offices or plants are located)
• College-sponsored scholarships for finalists who will attend the sponsor’s college or university

High school students interested in applying in future years need to talk to their school counselor to make arrangements to take the PSAT/NMSQT test. Registration is through the high school and not by the students. For information on the competition, bit.ly/3hzLR8E

The National Merit Scholarship Corporation was established in 1955 and is an independent, not-for-profit group that does not operate with government assistance. Since its founding it has awarded about 432,000 scholarships worth over $1.7 billion.

The goals of the organization are to reward academically dedicated students, encourage academic excellence at all levels of education, promote a deeper respect for learning in general and to encourage individuals and organizations to sponsor scholarships. nationalmerit.org

Here is the list of semifinalists in the 2021 National Merit Scholarship Program in Los Angeles County by their school and the school’s town:

AGOURA HILLS

Agoura Hills HS

• Rachel C. Fox
• Ethan G. Goldenberg
• Daniel L. Nathanson

ALHAMBRA

Mark Keppel HS

• Jasmine J. Lim

ARCADIA

Arcadia HS

• Legolas Chen
• William Chen
• Alex Dang
• Jiacheng Hu
• Dongming Hua
• Jolene Huey
• Nathan L. Kuo
• Kate M. Larrick
• Tanya D. Lee
• Claire A. Liang
• Margaret Lin
• Alex Liu
• Charisse Y. Liu
• Maxwell J. Montemayor
• Jenny Qiu
• Raghav Ramanujam
• Maggie Y. Sun
• Onassa Sun
• Jonathan H. Wang
• Melody Yang
• Henry H. Zeng

BEVERLY HILLS

Beverly Hills HS

• Parsa A. Famad
• Bradley K. Moon
• Nicholas M. Walker

BRENTWOOD

Heritage HS

• Spencer E. Wallace

BURBANK

Burbank HS

• Mahima Kodavati

CALABASAS

Calabasas HS

• Quynh-Anh N. Nguyen
• Jeremey H. White

CARSON

California Academy of Mathematics and Science

• Shua Cho
• Silas John
• Julianne L. Lim
• Crystal Ma
• Zoe D. Storaasli

CERRITOS

Cerritos HS

• Angelina K. Lee
• Ryan J. Salazar
• Karina Singh
• Joshua P. Zhu

Gretchen Whitney HS

• Charles J. Chen
• Hirad Hosseini
• Ryan S. Muraliraj
• Kenneth D. Nguyen
• Ryan Tseng

CHATSWORTH

Chatsworth HS

• Vince Dao Daloisio

Sierra Canyon HS

• Abdullah Z. Rafique
• David A. Rotblatt

CLAREMONT

Claremont HS

• Khushi Dwivedi
• Aleksandra M. Watkins

Vivian Webb School

• Jingyi Han
• Sneha Jindal
• Shu Wen Zhan

Webb School of California

• Jiaming Feng
• Marshall Olmos
• Pinlin Xu
• Andy Zhang

CULVER CITY

Culver City HS

• Brandon Kim

DIAMOND BAR

Diamond Bar HS

• Sritaran S. Bondada
• Emily C. Chen
• Aaron Hao
• Brandon G. Kam
• Caitlin Lee
• Camille A. McCurry
• Celine T. Shen
• Nathan C. Song
• Claire Wang
• Derek S. Wang
• Benjamin C. Wu
• Chelsea A. Wu
• Breanna Y. Yang
• Jacob A. Zhi
• Erin Zhou
• Luke F. Zhou

EAGLE ROCK

Eagle Rock HS

• Diego A. Wong

EL SEGUNDO

Da Vinci Science HS

• Nicole P. Yeh

ENCINO

Holy Martyrs HS

• Lori N. Garavartanian

GLENDORA

Glendora HS

• Brandon Jia
• Lauren Meraz

GRANADA HILLS

Granada Hills Charter HS

• Kaden S. Chou
• Se Eun K. Ryu

HACIENDA HEIGHTS

Glen A. Wilson HS

• Sirjen Kaur

LA CAÑADA FLINTRIDGE

Flintridge Preparatory School

• John McCloud
• Rodolf Ruiz
• Claire A. Senft

La Cañada HS

• Derek Ahn
• Ian Baik
• Hee Su Chung
• Trin J. Chung
• Reza Hemmati
• Derek L. Jiang
• Olivia L. Joung
• Chase A. Kerstein
• Jordan A. Lay
• Nadia L. Lintag
• Michael T. Lisano
• Ellaney N. Matarese
• Cassidy M. Olson
• Amelia E. Seropian
• Leila R. Thompsky

LA CRESCENTA

Crescenta Valley HS

• Anahita Ahmadi
• Prashanth S. Bhaskara
• Adarsh Chilkunda
• Jaya S. Hamkins
• Margaret W. Kim
• Sarah Nakama

LA VERNE

Bonita HS

• Avinash A. Chauhan
• Sophia L. Whitaker

LAKEWOOD

Home school

• Nicholas J. Benefield

LONG BEACH

Long Beach Polytechnic HS

• Liam R. Alpern
• Caleb E. Marsh
• Jason White

Robert A. Millikan HS

• Jacob. P. Bower

Sato Academy of Math and Science

• Safa Saeed

LOS ANGELES

Francisco Bravo Medical Magnet HS

• Kelli A. Van Brunt

Brentwood School

• Louis B. Adler
• Haley J. Gauer
• Giulia N. Germano
• Lauren A. Gold
• Dylan S. Kane
• Sadie M. Sarkisian

Fairfax HS

• Grace Kim

Girls Academic Leadership Academy

• Naomi E. Macey

Alexander Hamilton HS

• Ryan W. Barnes
• Elizabeth A. Cushnir
• Max B. Fattal
• Andrew Palacci

Le Lycée Français de Los Angeles

• Asher I. Cohen

Abraham Lincoln HS

• Cindy Lei

Los Angeles Center for Enriched Studies

• Yunsu Ha
• Macy J. Pine

Los Angeles County HS for the Arts

• Nicole Lam

Loyola HS

• Kyle Beerbower
• Benjamin M. Cortez
• Nicholas George
• Julian D. Ha
• Kevin Lavelle
• Sameer Nayyar

Marlborough School

• Eleanor L. Atlee
• Sidney I. Bae
• Emma O. Cruz
• Kaelyn Hindshaw
• Isabelle A. Shapiro
• Maisie Thompson

Marymount HS

• Jennifer J. Kim
• Julia H. Kim

University HS

• Brenden K. Barber-Choi

Windward School

• Nicholas A. Cohen
• William S. Gallon
• Emma Z. Green

Wish Academy HS

• Angela H. Yang

MALIBU

Malibu HS

• Emma M. Sudmann

MANHATTAN BEACH

Mira Costa HS

• Brandon M. Bui
• Owen A. Campbell
• Lauren Chiu
• Shane P. Foley
• William T. Gerken
• Audrey E. Lee
• Nicolas M. Lee
• Bryce C. Li
• Max W. Riley
• Alexandra L. Runnels
• Megan K. Shintaku
• Caleb H. Wallis

NORTH HOLLYWOOD

North Hollywood HS

• Margot S. Dayan
• James A. Dy
• Samantha P. Krulik
• Aidan C. McCarthy
• Saiprakash Paspuleti
• Albert Zhang

Oakwood School

• Koa M. Lee

PACIFIC PALISADES

Palisades Charter HS

• Patrick H. King
• Daniel J. Ravicz
• Sydney L. Savarese
• Walker J. Uhls

PALOS VERDES ESTATES

Palos Verdes HS

• Daniel Belzberg
• Matthew H. Kang
• Beom Joon Kim
• Phillipe S. Wiederkehr

PALOS VERDES PENINSULA

Chadwick School

• Hannah H. Bogen
• Marco R. Burstein
• Lukas R. Harris
• Rohan A. Joshi
• Cade M. Vernon
• Alanna Zhang

PASADENA

La Salle HS

• Matthew B. Day

Maranatha HS

• Memphis M. Lau

John Marshall Fundamental School

• Colson T. Kishimoto

Polytechnic HS

• Maggie S. Grether
• Molly M. Hill
• Audrey Y. Kim
• Sarah A. Thein

Sequoyah School

• Julian Suh-Toma

Westridge School

• Simone M. Kang
• Mirelle Lindquist
• Maya P. Melnik
• Katherine N. Mrozek
• Jennifer L. Spinoglio
• Jiatong Zhang

REDONDO BEACH

Redondo Union HS

• Madeleine Bloomer
• Liam Hogan
• Rylee Kang
• Juninho Paniouchkine

RESEDA

Cleveland HS

• Ryan C. Kim

ROLLING HILLS ESTATES

Palos Verdes Peninsula HS

• Jason G. Apostol
• Kosei S. Chetanna
• Russell T. Chuang
• Aksh Garg
• Amy W. Huang
• J Calvin Kim
• Skylar J. Lo
• Sarah T. Omalley
• Andrew R. Sinsioco
• Madison S. Yeh

ROSEMEAD

Rosemead HS

• Jordan K. Huynh

ROWLAND HEIGHTS

John A. Rowland HS

• Bryan C. Lai
• Melody Lo

SAN GABRIEL

Gabrielino HS

• Curtis Y. Chen
• Melanie Tang

San Gabriel HS

• Kelvin Luu

SAN MARINO

San Marino HS

• Matthew G. Lee
• Anna K. Moller
• Andrew J. Yim

SANTA MONICA

Crossroads School

• Addison Davis

Santa Monica HS

• Collin B. Beal
• Kole A. Lee

SOUTH PASADENA

South Pasadena HS

• Frances H. Chiu
• Matthew B. Haines
• Jessica G. Li
• Luyang Zhang

STUDIO CITY

Harvard-Westlake School

• Anneliese V. Ardizzone
• Nicole P. Austen
• Lyon U. Chung
• Yvette J. Copeland
• Ruoshan Dong
• Eli Friedman
• Navid Ghodsi
• Andrew Gong
• Akseli Kangaslahti
• Kyle T. Kaufman
• Matthew J. Kihiczak
• Christopher M. Ladreyt
• Angela G. Lee
• Austin J. Lee
• Christina E. Lee
• Matthew C. Lee
• Emma R. Limor
• Bennett J. Markinson
• Ford T. McDill
• Samantha M. McLoughlin
• Samantha A. Morris
• Zane M. Neelin
• Allison S. Park
• Felicity O. Phelan
• Matthew W. Redford
• Santiago Salazar
• Allegra C. Saltzman
• Anna F. Shell
• Eunji Shin
• Hope M. Shinderman
• Brooke A. Stanford
• John L. Szijjarto
• William K. Tao
• Charles H. Thumann
• Ryan A. Tsai
• Jasmine Wang
• Tyler M. Weigand
• Benjamin B. Weinberg
• Aaron Zhao

TEMPLE CITY

Temple City HS

• Phoebe G. Chan
• Sean Chan
• Tuan Anh Q. Nguyen

TORRANCE

South HS

• Sara Hasegawa
• Ella R. Marantz
• Jessica C. Oey
• Alexis S. Rampolla
• Shannon A. Shao
• Cindy Y. Zhang

West HS

• James J. Han
• Emma X. Isella
• Israel Ryu

TUJUNGA

Verdugo Hills HS

• Alex Yeghikian

VALENCIA

Valencia HS

• June N. Griffin
• Andrew J. Hahn
• Brooke L. Holtom

West Ranch HS

• Remy J. Bell
• Emily H. Chang
• Kevin T. Gillespie
• Jessamine Jin
• Janice M. Jung
• Steve S. Lee
• Joshua J. Xie

VALLEY GLEN

Stem 3 Academy

Emet Z. Hirsch

WALNUT

Walnut HS

• Prabhleen Kaur
• Christopher A. Phillips
• Jonathan P. Steele
• Nicole W. Zhang

WESTLAKE VILLAGE

Oaks Christian HS

• Sterling C. Drummond
• Claire Nguyen

Westlake HS

• Yusuf S. Alvi
• Ryan L. Chu
• Arjun J. Gutta
• Hillary A. Hsu

WOODLAND HILLS

El Camino Real Charter HS

• Jacob S. Isrow
• Adam M. Lehavi

Louisville HS

• Kate M. Powledge

William Howard Taft Charter HS

• Derek N. Askaryar

Source: Los Angeles Daily News