51 HISD seniors named semifinalists in National Merit Scholarship Program

The National Merit Scholarship Program has selected 51 Houston Independent School District seniors as semifinalists for the 2022-2023 scholarship competition year.

The scholarship program gives seniors the opportunity to compete for about 7,250 monetary scholarships to help jumpstart their college careers.

Academically talented young people take a qualifying test to enter the program, and of approximately 50,000 high scorers, just more than 16,000 students nationwide are chosen as semifinalists. In this, the program’s 68th year, 51 of those semifinalists are HISD students, listed below:

BELLAIRE HIGH SCHOOL

Berry, Augustus C.
Chang, Sidney S.
Ding, Cady
He, Amy
Ho, Christopher L.
Hu, Aisling E.
Huang, Andrew K.
Kim, Evan J.
Li, Letian,
Nguyen, Anthony K.
Park, Amy S.
Rubin, Alexander Conroy
Sunkavalli, Suvan V.
Tom, Bradley A.
Truitt, Charles E.
Wallach, Nina L.
Wang, Yanke
Way, Jasmine E.
Xu, Reina C.
Yennu, Rishi R.
Zhang, Weifan

CARNEGIE VANGUARD HS

Barnett, Davis G.
Barnett, Nathaniel M.
Cazares, Marian G.
Lay, Oscar L.
Li, Annie S.
Li-Kroeger, Annabelle S.
Madan, Tanish
Okolo, Joshua I.
Oudinot, Edouard L.
Palacharla, Anika S.
Qi, Jeffrey Z.
Walmer, Benjamin J.

MICHAEL E. DE BAKEY HS FOR HEALTH PROFESSIONS

Aro, Hanan G.
Liao, Xiyou
Mai, Alexander
Mittakanti, Rusheel R.
Ngo, Annie H.
Nguyen, Angela V.
Nguyen, Nicholas C.
Okpah, Promise N.

HEIGHTS HS

Bunge, Akira S.

KINDER HS FOR THE PERFORMING AND VISUAL ARTS

Hampton, Natalie A.
Jimenez, Isabella A.
Sunder, Lakshmi Y.
Zhang, Melody Y.

MIRABEAU B. LAMAR HS

Mardanov, Nathan K.
Tran, Sean N.

WESTSIDE HS

McKay, Megan G.
Narang, Saahir

Finalists will be chosen in February 2023. From that group, the Merit Scholarships will be awarded to finalists based on their abilities, skills and accomplishments, including their academic record, a personal essay, and a written recommendation from an official from their high school.