Fifty-six students from six Houston ISD high schools are semifinalists in the 60th annual National Merit Scholarship Program.
The students, who attend Bellaire HS, Carnegie Vanguard HS, Challenge Early College HS, DeBakey HS, The High School for Performing and Visual Arts, and Lamar HS, are eligible to receive part of the $33 million pot of scholarships that will be awarded in the spring. There are nearly 16,000 semifinalists nationwide, and about 7,600 will receive scholarships. More than 22,000 students applied by taking the Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test.
In order to become one of the estimated 15,000 finalists, students will submit a detailed scholarship application that includes their academic record, participation in school or community activities, demonstrated leadership abilities, employment, and honors or awards they have received. They will also need to be recommended by a high school official, write an essay and earn an SAT score that confirms their performance on the PSAT.
Students will be notified in February if they have been selected as a finalist.
Houston ISD semifinalists include:
| Bellaire High School | |
|---|---|
| Sophia Cen Anastasia Chan Tianxiu Chen Sue Davis Marina Finley Alessandra Gest Richard Goldman Hannah Lu Kenneth Zhu Helen Lu |
Akash Shukla Megan Siemann Alexander Smith Kevin Wang Kurt Warren Afton Widdershins Martin Williams |
| Carnegie Vanguard High School | |
|---|---|
| Benjamin Brenner Connor Burwell Albert Chang June Chee Max Dietrich Juliana Dunn Mitchell Gorman |
Brett Gu Ariel Hayes Henry Hoang Kiran Keneally David Lee Camille Potts |
| Challenge Early College High School |
|---|
| Peter Marks |
| DeBakey High School | |
|---|---|
| Reniba Babu Tran Dang Xiaoyi Dou Christina Guo Jeffrey Ha Praneeth Kambhampati Zachary Kortum Sloan Lalinda-Barnes Teresa Lee Gerlin Leu |
Christin Lu Simantini Mitra-Behura Newsha Nikzad Rutvik Patel Freya Preimesberger Jessica Rollinson Rachel Shenoi Poornima Tamma Rishi Wagle Samuel Zhu |
| The High School for Performing and Visual Arts |
|---|
| Jakob Helpinstill Claudia Heymach Jeremiah Pratt |
| Lamar High School |
|---|
| William Coulter Gavin Martin Zachary Nathan |