National Merit 2025: LA County scholarship semifinalists announced

A student’s graduation cap says it all on May 20, 2024. (Photo by Andy Holzman, Contributing Photographer)

The National Merit Scholarship Corporation announced on Wednesday, Sept. 11, its 2025 list of semifinalist high school students who will now compete for a share of about 6,870 scholarships worth almost $26 million. Winners will be announced nationally between April and July next year. This is the 70th annual competition.

High school juniors, 11th graders, in the United States entered the academic competition by taking the 2023 Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test. More than 1.3 million juniors, in about 21,000 high schools, entered the competition by taking the 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 SAT or ACT scores, 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, awards and honors received.

From the group of about 16,000 semifinalists, an expected 95% advance to the finalist category.

Students will be notified in February 2025 if they are finalists, and about half of those win a scholarship from three categories.

National Merit $2500 Scholarships: Every finalist competes for one of 2,500 scholarships that are awarded on a state-representational basis

Corporate-sponsored scholarships: About 770 corporate-sponsored awards will be given out by about 130 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)

College-sponsored scholarships: About 150 colleges and universities finance about 3,600 awards for finalists who will attend the sponsor’s institution

The National Merit Scholarship winners, chosen on the basis of accomplishments, skills and potential for college success, are selected from the February finalists group. Winners are notified, on a rolling basis, in 2025 from April to July.

The 2025 scholarship winners join the nearly 382,000 past winners who have earned the title of Merit Scholar.

Here is the list of semifinalists in the 2025 National Merit Scholarship Program in Los Angeles County by school location and the school name

Acton

Vasquez HS

• Ryan S. Ames

Agoura Hills

Agoura Hills HS

• Christian Fonkalsrud
• Matthew Gelb
• Ian Korob

Alhambra

Alhambra HS

• Kaung H. San
• Kaung M. San

Mark Keppel HS

• Xiushan Lu

Arcadia

Arcadia HS

• Avani A. Athavale
• Minjun Cha
• Lewis Cheng
• Hei Yin Choy
• Syed S. Hussain
• Dhruti G. Kulkarni
• Avik Kumar
• Annette L. Lin
• Mia Y. Liu
• Don C. Luc
• Max M. Ma
• Zuni Ng
• Atharv A.Prabhutendolkar
• Anas S. G. Yousuf Mohammed
• Catherine Z. Wang
• Herrick X. Wang
• Zejin Xu
• Evan S. Yen

Bellflower

St. John Bosco HS

• Josue Sanchez

Beverly Hills

Beverly Hills HS

• Benjamin Bakshian
• Tali Goldkorn
• Vincent Li
• Andrew Smiler
• Sarah Zhang

Brentwood

Liberty HS

• Phoenix E. Cabrera

Burbank

Burbank HS

• Avedis Missakian
• Diya Patel

International School Los Angeles

• Madeleine Cheung

Calabasas

Viewpoint School

• Julian Dans
• Samuel L. Green

Canyon Country

Canyon HS

• Christopher J. Barrett

Carson

California Academy of Mathematics and Science

• Isaiah Choung
• Yuchan Chung
• Justin Kim
• Titiksha Lunker
• Phong Trinh
• Quan Vu

Cerritos

Cerritos HS

• Jayden A. Lin

Gretchen Whitney HS

• Aanya Anand
• Benjamin Chao
• Jaden Han
• Ann Huang
• Ethan Hui
• Stanley Kim
• Luv Kumar
• Dineth Senanayake
• Gavin-Kai Vida
• Christopher Vu

Chatsworth

Sierra Canyon School

• Qinghe Xu
• Qiao Zhang

Claremont

Claremont HS

• Leo L. Cheng
• Ian L. Moore
• Sofia M. Ou
• Simon P. Rockwell

Vivian Webb School

• Kexin Duan
• Danting Hou
• Wen Yang

Webb School of California

• Zhenghao Hu
• Tingxu Lan
• Jay Pang
• Hanbo Xu
• Aaron Yang

Diamond Bar

Diamond Bar HS

• Nattanicha Chaisakulchai
• Jayden Chen
• Amanda Chung
• Janna Audrey Doratan
• Ethan Hoen
• Cody Jung
• Matthew Liu
• Daniel Prasetyo
• Donson Xie

Duarte

Duarte HS

• Dominic Anaya-Gulaya

El Segundo

El Segundo HS

• Caleb Tsai

Vistamar School

• Logan Pagani

Glendora

Glendora HS

• Carter Prince
• Diya Ravi

Granada Hills

Granada Hills Charter HS

• Victor Boodram
• Stephanie Dinh
• Kaytlin Hendrix
• Nicole Kim
• Thomas Mayberry
• Benjamin Sun

Hollywood

Hollywood HS

• Hudson N. Kim

La Cañada Flintridge

Flintridge Preparatory School

• Clara Bassuk
• Kai Belzer
• Elise Fong
• Michelle Geller
• Steinunn Liorsdottir
• Gregory Sue
• Chase Waldheim
• Sophia Zhong

La Cañada HS

• Colin Hwang
• Eliya Kim
• Gabriel Kronson
• Zoe Petropoulos
• Samuel Street
• Kaylee Thornburgh
• Aidan Wei

St. Francis HS

• Christopher J. Stephens

La Crescenta

Clark Magnet HS

• Xander Zufelt

Crescenta Valley HS

• Easan Hamkins
• Aiden Kim
• Garrison Ma
• Alex MacMillan
• Jamie Mansukhani
• Lily Zou

Long Beach

Long Beach Polytechnic HS

• Tejus Deo-Dixit
• Sarah Madden
• Allegra R. Steege
• Jade Steege

Los Angeles

The Archer School for Girls

• Julianna Hatton

Brentwood School

• Tara Malhotra

Geffen Academy at UCLA

• Bryce Koga
• Matthew Wen
• Jonah J. Wood

Larchmont Charter School

• Milo B. Gilhool

Loyola HS

• Turner J. Algra
• Connor Beerbower
• Lucas M. Brumbach
• Samuel T. Lee
• John C. Mastandrea
• Chase H. Nam

Marlborough School

• Yuan Cheng
• Siena Grouf
• Emma Melville
• Ava Park
• Margalit Salkin
• Eloise Shin
• Beatrice Williams
• Riley Yang

Milken Community School

• Lucas C. Besterman
• Samantha L. Simms

Windward School

• Aman Granados-Puvvula
• Quaid Shubin

Manhattan Beach

Mira Costa HS

• Eleanora Digilio
• Colin Freelin
• Cameron Hughes
• Jack Kjar
• Katherine Kligys
• Hudson Sagadevan
• Elizabeth Witherell

Monrovia

Monrovia HS

• Jackson Killen

Newhall

William S. Hart HS

• Caitlin E. Brown

North Hollywood

North Hollywood HS

• Dylan E. Chang
• Arman Ghasemi
• Michael Isayan
• Matthew M. Kim
• Andrew Lee
• Hriday V. Meka
• Nathan A. Minton
• Penelope C. Swain
• Eno Thomson-Tribe
• Aeneas M. Wood

Oakwood School

• Markus Cleckler
• Louis Reich

Science Academy Stem Magnet

• Gideon E. Said
• David S. Tang

Pacific Palisades

Palisades Charter HS

• James Ball
• Annalisa Hurd
• Samantha Sonnett

Palos Verdes Estates

Palos Verdes HS

• Michael Q. Fu
• Olivia J. Kao
• Avery K. Tydlaska
• Allison S. Yu

Palos Verdes Peninsula

Chadwick School

• Bryce Hatch
• Diane Lee
• Noah Matsunaga
• Ryan Saket
• Jack Segil
• Ashton Yoon

Pasadena

La Salle HS

• Jake Hoskins
• Ethan Lin
• Annie M. Liu
• Xinyan Liu
• Lucas A. Truong

Maranatha HS

• Zalan Volkan-Kacso

Marshall Fundamental HS

• Alejandro Leyva

Pasadena HS

• Paulina McConnell
• Matthew Paz

Polytechnic HS

• Ashley Kim
• Evelyn Kim
• Ennio Sim
• Ava Teng

Westridge School

• Sarah Leizman
• Yeuk On Li

Pomona

Diamond Ranch HS

• Ryan N. LeFevre-Dhore
• Shakari J. Sykes

Redondo Beach

Redondo Union HS

• Paul Carson
• Christian Chae
• Kyler Douglas
• Madison Kurihara
• Amelia Leto
• Tristan Lu
• Yijun Son

Reseda

Reseda HS

• Angel G. Ramirez-Rios

Rolling Hills Estates

Palos Verdes Peninsula HS

• Emily Y. Aye
• Neekta S. Baghoolizadeh
• Meizhu Chai
• Ray Z. Choo
• Leila M. Espinoza
• Charlotte M. Fast
• Abigail F. Lee
• Brandon K. Lin
• Juliette J. Lin
• Eric Y. Lu
• Jacob A. Ma
• Aaron S. Monzon
• Alena C. Rhoades
• Mason W. Shu
• Hyunbin So
• Bryce R. Tom
• Angelina Y. Wang
• Zhian Xu

Rowland Heights

John A. Rowland HS

• James Y. Hagiwara
• Arthur C. Liang

San Gabriel

Gabrielino  HS

• Kaden C. Chan
• Brandon Vuong

San Gabriel HS

• Jade Tan

San Marino

San Marino HS

• Caitlin Chwang
• Leo Feng
• Shanaya Jasim
• Jingshu Ji
• Jeremy Karkafi
• Krishna S. Kesavalu
• Andy W. Liu
• Connor Mao
• Fei Wu

Santa Clarita

Academy of the Canyons

• Praneel Samal

Santa Monica

Crossroads School

• Rowan Koskoff
• Sophie Ma
• Benjamin A. Shaheen

Pacifica Christian HS

• Drew Gerold

Santa Monica HS

• Phoebe R. Benun
• Naomi Z. Gage
• Connor H. Lee
• Isabella C. Moses
• Henry H. Sullivan
• Avelaine R. Thompson
• Emi Yamashiro-Hergert

Saugus

Saugus HS

• Acey Distor

Sherman Oaks

The Buckley School

• Thomas Barrett
• Sam Wagenaar

Notre Dame HS

• Anton Caballero
• Rowell Pangilinan
• Carter Ranshaw

South Pasadena

South Pasadena HS

• William Chang
• Peter Dickinson
• Suh-Hyun Kang
• Isole Kim
• Max Slattery
• Morgan Sun
• Ryan Wong
• Christine Xu
• Taidi Yue

Studio City

Campbell Hall

• Christopher Braun
• Sage Kim

Harvard-Westlake School

• Sasha S. Aghnatios
• Michael T. Barr
• Kira A. Beerel
• Rowan Callaghan
• Hugh Cheng
• Aryadini D. Diggavi
• Zoe S. Goor
• Cole A. Grossman
• Pranav Iyer
• Riyan B. Kadribegovic
• Zhi Feng Etan Kiang
• Saisha Kumar
• Remy Kushner
• Everett M. Lakey
• Alex S. Lee
• MeJo Liao
• Ian Lieberman
• Jacob Massey
• Seth D. O’Brien
• Tyler H. Park
• Olivia Phillips
• Margaret E. Pritzker
• William R. Putzer
• Samuel Reiner
• Jordan Royer
• John Ryan
• Sophia S. Schaffer
• Ethan Seung
• Olivia S. So
• Max L. Turetzky
• Piper N. Vita
• Edward H. Ward

Sun Valley

Village Christian HS

• Cecillia Kim

Temple City

Temple City HS

• Allison Fong
• Joyce Hu
• Tiffany Phan

Torrance

Bishop Montgomery HS

• Caden Choi
• Kaila Hahn

South HS

• Alexis Choi
• Anay Kamboj

West HS

• Qinghan Jia

Tujunga

Verdugo Hills HS

• Airin Avanesian

Valencia

Valencia HS

• Ritu Yeshala
• Elbert Zeng

West Ranch HS

• Hannah S. Lee
• Jonathan J. Myung
• Camille Y. Song

Van Nuys

Van Nuys HS

• Trenton A. Ayson

Venice

Venice HS

• Fateh G. Aliyev

Walnut

Walnut HS

• Jiarong Bian
• Justin Cheng
• Surya D. Donath
• Ted H. Hong
• David H. Kang
• Barron P. Lee
• Andrew Z. Lin
• Anson Lin

West Covina

Edgewood HS

• Aquilin H. Hsiao

West Hills

Chaminade College Preparatory

• Luke Lahoud

De Toledo HS

• Adam M. Donaty

Westlake Village

Oaks Christian HS

• Troy P. Brady
• XuXu L. Denzel
• Ellison G. Korman
• Max J. Lee
• Logan R. Winter
• Owen C. Yang

Westlake HS

• Nina Deng
• Eva Firoozbakht
• Zirak Guzder
• Jonah Kim
• Dhilen Mistry
• Oren Wacht

Wilmington

Dr. Richard A Vladovic Harbor Teacher Preparation Academy

• Eric M. Tobias

Woodland Hills

El Camino Real Charter HS

• Brendan M. Luna

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, tinyurl.com/mrx4t933

The National Merit Scholarship Corporation was established in 1955 and is an independent, not-for-profit group that does not operate with government assistance.

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