One hundred high school seniors in Contra Costa County have been named semifinalists in the 70th annual National Merit Scholarship Program.
Among them are El Cerrito High seniors Oliver Arkin and Daniel Seo. See the full list of semifinalists at the bottom of this story.
Semifinalists represent less than one percent of U.S. seniors. Students across the nation enter the program by taking the 2023 Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test.
Dougherty Valley High School in the San Ramon Valley Unified School District leads the county with 33 students earning Semifinalist honors.
Semifinalists now advance in the competition, which includes more than $26 million in collective scholarships.
Contra Costa County Superintendent of Schools Lynn Mackey congratulated the semifinalists in a statement.
“Achieving Semifinal status is no small feat,” Mackey said. “The dedication, determination, and perseverance of these students have led them to this remarkable milestone. I also want to also recognize the invaluable support of their families, teachers, and school communities in fostering their success. We wish these scholars the best as they represent our county and move forward in the competition for National Merit Scholarships.”
For more information on the National Merit Scholarship Program, visit www.nationalmerit.org.
CONTRA COSTA COUNTY NATIONAL MERIT SCHOLARSHIP SEMIFINALISTS
ACALANES HIGH SCHOOL – 5
Garcia, Zachary J.
Hoeberechts, Kaya Y.
Johnson, Julia H.
Ristow, Carsten L.
Yoshinaka, Jake M.
ALHAMBRA HIGH SCHOOL – 1
Kaur, Jaap
ANTIOCH HIGH SCHOOL – 1
Gregson, Zack M.
ATHENIAN SCHOOL – 2
Molitor, Garrett M.
Solomon, Michael J.
BENTLEY SCHOOL – 7
Chiang, Clifton
Friedrichs, Olivia
Peterson, Robert
Ragins, Rachel
Tao, Wilson
Walzer, Joseph
Weiss, Theodore
BEREAN CHRISTIAN HIGH SCHOOL – 1
Trebotich, Annabelle
CARONDELET HIGH SCHOOL – 1
Macri, Alexandra L.
CALIFORNIA HIGH SCHOOL -12
Cheung, Meghan G.
Chu, Isaac L.
Griffin, Callan B.
Li, Mengze
Li, William Y.
Liang, Kadon O.
Nayak, Sahil S.
Piggott IV, William T.
Rudrakshi, Naman S.
Srinivasan, Amritha
Thippavajjula, Srikar
Zhao, Cindy Y.
CAMPOLINDO HIGH SCHOOL – 9
Baker, Clare
Chen, Anna
Cheung, Chloe
Chugh, Dilon
Dong, Andrew
Jia, Marilyn
Liao, Grace
Pawlik-Zwiebel, Ariel
Yu, Chang
CONTRA COSTA CHRISTIAN HIGH SCHOOL – 1
Victorio, Andrew
DOUGHERTY VALLEY HIGH SCHOOL – 33
Agarwal, Prisha
Agrawal, Aryan
Bhaskara, Aditya
Bian, Hunter
Challa, Varun
Chandrasekhar, Aditya
Chen, Josiah
De, Aarush
Krishna, Adithya M.
Kumar, Vainavi
Lee, Jayden D.
Malani, Rohan V.
Mehrotra, Khushi
Mei, Andy L.
Mishra, Plaban
Nadhan, Pallavi
Naidu, Nirav M.
Narayan, Aditya
Park, Aiden D.
Park, Sejun
Pham, Michael K.
Rajkumar, Shalini S.
Sandadi, Rohit
Shen, Katherine X.
Wang, Joy
Wang, Joyce
Wang, Justin
Wei, Hongyi
Wu, Joyce C.
Xu, Victoria C.
Zhang, Joshua Z.
Zhang, Timothy Y.
Zhao, William J.
EL CERRITO – 2
Arkin, Oliver M.
Seo, Daniel J.
LIBERTY HIGH SCHOOL – 1
Cabrera, Phoenix E.
LOS LOMAS HIGH SCHOOL – 2
Raphael, Seth
Sivakumaran Thangaraj, Harrshwin
MIRAMONTE HIGH SCHOOL – 7
Anderson, William
Crisologo, Jacob
Hagendoorn, Logan
Rguem, Preston
Rivera-Gu, Abigail
Wong, Chase
Wong, Emma
MONTE VISTA HIGH SCHOOL – 11
Atkinson, Kalen J.
Bijlani, Trisha
Cao, Stephanie Y.
Chao, Rex S.
Dolan, Liam K.
Ferman, Emre
Fernandez, Sofia F.
Gandhi, Arshia
Kabbarah, Bashar
Kayari, Amanda E.
Kuwahara, Callen M.
NORTHGATE – 3
Burenko, Mark
Mitchell, Sophia
Shen, Anthony
SAN RAMON VALLEY HIGH SCHOOL – 1
Luo, Nicholas H.
