NATIONAL MERIT SCHOLARSHIP CORPORATION
1560 Sherman Avenue, Suite 200, Evanston, Illinois 60201-4897 (847) 866-5100

SEMIFINALISTS IN THE 2020
NATIONAL MERIT® SCHOLARSHIP PROGRAM
September 11, 2019 Announcement
Contact: Eileen Artemakis or Matthew Budreau
Public Information

Phone:
(847) 866-5100
Email:
mediainfo@nmerit.net
Website: www.nationalmerit.org

Advance: For release on Wednesday, September 11, 2019
Note to editors: Semifinalists in your state are listed alphabetically by city and
high school following this press release.
This material is prepared solely for news media to announce the names of
Semifinalists; its use for any other purpose is prohibited.

Caution: Using numbers of Semifinalists to compare high schools, educational systems, or
states will result in erroneous conclusions. The National Merit® Scholarship Program honors
individual students who show exceptional academic ability and potential for success in rigorous
college studies. The program does not measure the quality or effectiveness of education within
a school, system, or state. For more information about the competition, please visit NMSC’s
website at www.nationalmerit.org.

Semifinalists in the 2020 National Merit® Scholarship Program
(Evanston, Illinois) Today officials of National Merit Scholarship Corporation (NMSC)
announced the names of approximately 16,000 Semifinalists in the 65th annual National Merit
Scholarship Program. These academically talented high school seniors have an opportunity to
continue in the competition for some 7,600 National Merit Scholarships worth more than $31
million that will be offered next spring. To be considered for a Merit Scholarship® award,
Semifinalists must fulfill several requirements to advance to the Finalist level of the competition.
Over 90 percent of the Semifinalists are expected to attain Finalist standing, and about half
of the Finalists will win a National Merit Scholarship, earning the Merit Scholar® title.
NMSC, a not-for-profit organization that operates without government assistance, was
established in 1955 specifically to conduct the annual National Merit Scholarship Program.
Scholarships are underwritten by NMSC with its own funds and by approximately 400 business
organizations and higher education institutions that share NMSC’s goals of honoring the nation’s
scholastic champions and encouraging the pursuit of academic excellence.

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Semifinalists in the 2020 National Merit Scholarship Program

Steps in the 2020 Competition
Over 1.5 million juniors in about 21,000 high schools entered the 2020 National Merit
Scholarship Program by taking the 2018 Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying
Test (PSAT/NMSQT ®), which served as an initial screen of program entrants. The nationwide
pool of Semifinalists, representing less than one percent of U.S. high school seniors, includes the
highest-scoring entrants in each state. The number of Semifinalists in a state is proportional to the
state’s percentage of the national total of graduating seniors.
To become a Finalist, the Semifinalist and a high school official must submit a detailed
scholarship application, in which they provide information about the Semifinalist’s academic record,
participation in school and community activities, demonstrated leadership abilities, employment,
and honors and awards received. A Semifinalist must have an outstanding academic record throughout high school, be endorsed and recommended by a high school official, write an essay, and earn
SAT ® or ACT® scores that confirm the student’s earlier performance on the qualifying test.
From the approximately 16,000 Semifinalists, about 15,000 are expected to advance
to the Finalist level, and in February they will be notified of this designation. All National Merit
Scholarship winners will be selected from this group of Finalists. Merit Scholar designees are
selected on the basis of their skills, accomplishments, and potential for success in rigorous college
studies, without regard to gender, race, ethnic origin, or religious preference.
National Merit Scholarships
Three types of National Merit Scholarships will be offered in the spring of 2020. Every
Finalist will compete for one of 2,500 National Merit® $2500 Scholarships that will be awarded on
a state-representational basis. About 1,000 corporate-sponsored Merit Scholarship awards will be
provided by approximately 220 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 plants or offices are located. In addition, about 180 colleges and universities are expected
to finance some 4,100 college-sponsored Merit Scholarship awards for Finalists who will attend the
sponsor institution.
National Merit Scholarship winners of 2020 will be announced in four nationwide news
releases beginning in April and concluding in July. These scholarship recipients will join more than
345,000 other distinguished young people who have earned the Merit Scholar title.
#

#

#

National Merit, Merit Scholarship, Merit Scholar, and the corporate “Lamp of Learning” logo
are federally registered service marks of
National Merit Scholarship Corporation. PSAT/NMSQT is a registered trademark of National Merit Scholarship Corporation and College Board.
SAT is a registered trademark of College Board. ACT is a registered trademark of ACT, Inc.

 Semifinalists: 2020 National
Merit Scholarship Program

302
455
160
167

Liu, Angela L.
Moser, Tobias C.
Sriram, Ameya M.
Zhong, Zeyu

GLENELG COUNTRY SCHOOL
628 Good, Natalie G.

710
720

Yu, Erin
Yu, Juliana

MIDDLETOWN
MIDDLETOWN H. S.
628 Washart, Rachel M.

MILLERSVILLE

MARYLAND
ABERDEEN
ABERDEEN H. S.
360 Hilburgh, Anna E.

ADAMSTOWN
HOMESCHOOL
742 Riedel, Alexander R.

ANNAPOLIS
BROADNECK H. S.
301 Donze, David M.

BALTIMORE
BALTIMORE POLYTECHNIC
INSTITUTE
742 Ross, Colton D.
791 Schott, Helen I.
BALTIMORE SCHOOL FOR
THE ARTS
000 Vizachero, Emilia V.
BRYN MAWR SCHOOL
000 Chang, Eugene A.
000 Doub, Astri W.
000 Gumtow, Jessica M.
CALVERT HALL COLLEGE H. S.
214 Johnson, Cole L.
450 Lau, Fuk-Lam F.
CARVER CENTER FOR ARTS
AND TECHNOLOGY
457 Lawrence, Spencer C.
CATONSVILLE H. S.
161 McDivitt, Jessica L.
450 Queeney, Eleanor G.
200 Schumacher, Ellen K.
EASTERN TECHNICAL H. S.
454 Kumcheva, Mary E.
GILMAN SCHOOL
160 Dong, Bryan C.
163 Ha, Stephen S.
455 Khurgin, Daniel A.
843 Li, Jeffrey B.
821 Lin, Haoyi
THE PARK SCHOOL
000 Sims, Benjamin J.
PERRY HALL H. S.
999 Kim, Erick Y.
ROLAND PARK COUNTRY SCHOOL
628 Taylor, Katherine R.
WESTERN SCHOOL OF
TECHNOLOGY AND
ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE
303 Shuaib, Abdullah M.

BEL AIR
C. MILTON WRIGHT H. S.
000 Brownfield, John C.

BERLIN
STEPHEN DECATUR H. S.
773 Wolf, Grayson L.

BETHESDA
BETHESDA - CHEVY CHASE H. S.
843 Barmada, Reed H.
999 Busis, Molly A.
700 Hallmark, Caroline S.
999 Niebler, Rachel L.
451 Sparling, Jonah S.
HOLTON - ARMS SCHOOL
999 Cetta, Francesca B.
946 Colomer, Alicia
901 Einhorn, Jenna T.

450
160

HOWARD H. S.
303 Appel, Robert K.
628 Ayaz, Zenab
999 Kim, Harrison C.
000 Kim, Jonathan J.
303 Varadarajan, Samiksha
450 Woods, Edmund B.

Pham, Sydney A.
Shapland, Emily C.

WALTER JOHNSON H. S.
171 Nagaich, Amitoj
302 Ramireddygari, Sreekrishna
999 Usanov, Nikolay
999 Wu, Sophia D.

MOUNT HEBRON H. S.
000 Dahiwadkar, Aboli S.
214 Li, William R.
904 Loraine, Lorelei N.
628 Nambiar, Pooja J.
306 Wang, David R.

LANDON SCHOOL
303 Curran, Denis A.
906 Mearns, Alexander
STONE RIDGE SCHOOL OF THE
SACRED HEART
000 Gidley, Charlotte C.
833 Kilner, Meaghan M.
200 Looney, Anna K.

FREDERICK
FREDERICK H. S.
773 Pondoc, Christopher L.
HOMESCHOOL
161 Harvey, Katherine A.

WALT WHITMAN H. S.
168 Bertholet, Jules R.
946 Cook, Nicholas O.
628 Donner, Hannah R.
000 Dronamraju, Rasika P.
450 Goldstein-Coloretti, Kaleo A.
218 Lee, Hunter E.
185 Leventis, Samantha M.
999 London, Max W.
700 Mayo, Emily O.
451 McLenagan, Devin E.
904 Olson, Nathaniel R.
462 Salafsky, Emma N.
161 Xiao, Boyang

ROCKBRIDGE ACADEMY
303 McDowell, Ryan S.

NORTH BETHESDA
GEORGETOWN PREPARATORY
SCHOOL
450 Scola, Dominic M.

NORTH EAST
RISING SUN H. S.
630 Robertshaw, Sydney L.
TOME SCHOOL
467 Martin, Jackson H.

OLNEY
OUR LADY OF GOOD
COUNSEL H. S.
000 Better, Shane H.
000 Henne, Eliza S.

OWINGS MILLS
LINGANORE H. S.
833 Kullgren, Dana E.
999 Rich, John P.

FULTON
RESERVOIR H. S.
454 Choi, Isabelle A.
467 Lai, Andrew
000 Shah, Yashvi P.

GERMANTOWN
NORTHWEST H. S.
000 Bang, John
000 Block, Jaden T.
000 Li, Amanda J.
740 Melikova, Kamila K.
000 Pang, Rachel

BUCKEYSTOWN
ST. JOHN'S CATHOLIC PREP
466 Shapiro, Chase B.

CLARKSBURG
CLARKSBURG H. S.
000 Oberoi, Natasha
907 Tishaev, Zoe A.

GLEN BURNIE
GLEN BURNIE H. S.
628 Astavans, Anagh

CLARKSVILLE

GLENELG

RIVER HILL H. S.
843 Chaudhry, Zan Z.
463 Correll Brown, Riordan A.
712 Du, Jeffrey Y.
907 Hernandez, Matthew A.
970 Huang, Sophia
160 Kitzinger, Katherine A.
162 Luo, Adam J.
454 Pavlosky, Nicholas S.
204 Qian, Andrew
303 Shah, Vedaant D.
301 Simpson, Oliver E.
303 Zhao, Amy X.

GLENELG H. S.
870 Brinster, Claire R.
461 Tribble, Charlie M.

GREENBELT
ELEANOR ROOSEVELT H. S.
454 Kuo, Leo

HUNTINGTOWN
HUNTINGTOWN H. S.
450 Cobb, Tamea M.

IJAMSVILLE
URBANA H. S.
999 Oh, Alison H.
303 Simkin, Sonya A.
451 Subramanian, Sanjana
501 Zhu, Bria H.

COLUMBIA
ATHOLTON H. S.
162 Ake, Elisabeth D.
999 Fan, Ethan H.
000 Guo, Benjamin X.
904 Osheroff, Daniel S.
209 Recht, Benjamin P.
999 Smoot, Annabel N.
904 Tong, Bill W.
303 Uttamsingh, Rohan A.
742 Wu, Jessica Y.

LEONARDTOWN
LEONARDTOWN H. S.
160 Schwalbe, Dana
300 Willette, Cameron

MANCHESTER

LONG REACH H. S.
450 Levine, Samuel D.
301 Modugula, Abhinav R.

MANCHESTER VALLEY H. S.
843 Schmitt, Alexander G.

MARRIOTTSVILLE

WILDE LAKE H. S.
742 Uy, Isaac B.

MARRIOTTS RIDGE H. S.
999 Andrews, Julia E.
303 Baker, Rebecca J.
907 Casper, Audrey C.
162 Han, Naomi
628 Ju, Eunice Y.
457 Khor, Hong Z.
450 Kim, Alex M.
450 Lee, Joshua S.
743 Li, Michelle M.
000 Li, Zhuoyuan
450 Mills, Nicholas A.
870 Moon, Jiwoo
300 Nayak, Yuvraj

ELDERSBURG
LIBERTY H. S.
999 Singh, Anjan

ELLICOTT CITY
CENTENNIAL H. S.
970 Bacon, Keertik
166 Cara, Daria
999 Gupta, Udit
451 Huang, Richard
906 Kim, Emily E.

3

HOMESCHOOL
553 Arnold, Emma L.
MC DONOGH SCHOOL
000 Assefa, Kaleb N.
000 Bers, Ethan W.
999 Hung, Ashton C.
463 Khan, Zain R.
000 Luo, Luke
000 Mulhern, Daniel D.

PARKTON
HEREFORD H. S.
455 Holbrook, William J.
161 Jenkin, Sydney C.
303 Rowe, Rachel E.
791 Wu, Derek G.

POOLESVILLE
POOLESVILLE H. S.
209 Barash, June M.
459 Guha, Tejas
162 Hancu, Maria C.
000 Kamineny, Pranay B.
303 Lolla, Sadhana S.
000 Mann, Gurshaan S.
204 Wang, Alison Y.

POTOMAC
WINSTON CHURCHILL H. S.
000 Du, Samuel
000 Fang, Sophia Y.
000 Gautam, Navya
999 Gerber, Sasha G.
000 Han, Rachel J.
000 He, Eric S.
000 Huang, Joseph Y.
000 Jin, Andrew Y.
000 Kronthal, Elizabeth E.
454 Krstic, Katharina A.
904 Lin, Lucas L.
000 Mao, Austin
000 Shan, Arik
000 Stein, Leah R.
000 Sundaresan, Manu
000 Yu, Miranda W.
000 Zhang, Cheryl
ST. ANDREW'S EPISCOPAL
SCHOOL
000 Lobsenz, Joshua E.

ROCKVILLE
MELVIN J. BERMAN
HEBREW ACADEMY
459 Berkowitz, Akiva A.
742 Guggenheim, Judah M.
RICHARD MONTGOMERY H. S.
000 Bonzi Teixeira, Clara P.
000 Brown, Samantha R.
000 Chai, Jessica L.
000 Chen, Emily
000 Chu, Derek
000 Cong, Alyssa
000 Henry, Ivana
000 Khawaja, Ayesha

 Semifinalists: 2020 National Merit Scholarship Program

Maryland (continued)
451
000
000
000
000
999
000
000
000
000
000
000
000
000
000
000
160
169
000
000
000
000
000
000
000
000
000
000
900
000
000

Kolodner, Katie L.
Lee, Eujin K.
Lee, Isabelle J.
Lee, Jeehye R.
Levy, Lydia H.
Li, Jennifer J.
Liu, Kimberly M.
Machado, Neal S.
Mu, Angela Y.
Pan, Kevin B.
Pan, Michael
Pandey, Meghna
Protas, Eli F.
Qian, Helen
Quesnel, Maylis E.
Savsani, Kush V.
Shastry, Anagha
Simak, Jonathan V.
Teselko, Zachary J.
Wang, Joy J.
Wang, Sophia S.
Wang, Valerie
Yang, Jack Z.
Yao, Laura J.
Yeo, Julie J.
Yung, Cathy A.
Yung, Jessie
Zhang, Clare Y.
Zhang, Kathryn
Zhao, Katherine
Zhou, Christine L.

301
000
000
467
000
000
000
000
000
000

Silverberg, Jesse H.
Song, Emmy T.
Tang, Michelle
Wilson, Carter M.
Xin, Victoria W.
Yang, Ambrose Y.
Yang, Karen J.
Zhang, Justin Y.
Zhao, Shawn H.
Zhou, Ivvone

WHEATON H. S.
000 Vu, Christopher T.

TIMONIUM
DULANEY H. S.
628 Hossain, Mir Saif
999 Jin, Victoria S.
303 Maybhate, Gautam
628 Potluri, Sreesaisowmya
200 Shen, Sarah S.
999 Yin, Benjamin P.

TOWSON
LOYOLA BLAKEFIELD H. S.
960 Rohd, Benjamin M.
TOWSON H. S.
740 Heffren, David R.
000 Sung, Irene J.
559 Tan, Aaron H.

WESTMINSTER
WESTMINSTER H. S.
836 Davidson, Laniya S.
999 Nguyen, Hannah T.

ROCKVILLE H. S.
303 Atzili, Tomer
CHARLES E. SMITH JEWISH
DAY SCHOOL
451 Lubin, Russell S.
999 Nadaner, Isaac K.
THOMAS SPRIGG WOOTTON H. S.
000 Chai, Amy H.
162 Geng, Stephanie
628 Liu, Joanne Z.
000 Majumder, Zain N.
000 Shen, Michelle
467 Shi, Joy
000 Singh, Mollika J.

SANDY SPRING
SHERWOOD H. S.
000 Crompton, Eve E.

SEVERN
ARCHBISHOP SPALDING H. S.
000 Park, Anna

SEVERNA PARK
SEVERN SCHOOL
457 Bruce, Samuel G.
SEVERNA PARK H. S.
302 Chang, Allison A.
742 Fuhrmann, Callista R.

SILVER SPRING
MONTGOMERY BLAIR H. S.
450 Amir, Daphne
628 Arun, Aarthi J.
000 Brodsky, Marie
000 Chervenak, Simon L.
000 Danielski, Caroline L.
000 DeVoe, Liam O.
467 Dey, Rachel S.
700 Donovan, Lintaro P.
000 Gordy, Hemakshi M.
000 Hsu, Jason A.
000 Hu, Andrew
000 Hu, Evan Z.
000 James-Le, Josephine M.
000 Kim, Hannah J.
455 Kim, Joey D.
000 Koehler, Abigail L.
466 Lee, June P.
160 Lei, Katherine
999 Levav, Adam
000 Levy, Daniel R.
300 Li, Bryan T.
300 Li, Kelley
162 Liu, Amanda S.
999 Mattikalli, Tarun N.
000 Pinsky, Yael C.
000 Ren, Jennifer

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