Semifinalists chosen from more than 1.3 million high school juniors in the country have been named in the 71st annual National Merit Scholarship Program.
More than 230 Orange County students are among the 16,000 high schoolers across the country who were announced Wednesday, Sept. 10, by the nonprofit that runs the prestigious scholarship program.
The semifinalists may now compete for nearly 7,000 college scholarships totaling nearly $26 million that will be awarded in the spring.
High school juniors take a preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship qualifying test as part of their application, and the semifinalists represent the highest scorers from each state, officials with the organization said. Students’ activities in school and the community, how they have demonstrated leadership, their academics and their honors and awards are also considered.
Here are the semifinalists from Orange County.
ALISO VIEJO
ALISO NIGUEL HIGH
Ishan Kumar
Garrett McCormick
Arav Mody
Molei Zhong
ANAHEIM
CANYON HIGH
Victoria Bui
Katelyn C. Gooneratne
Kieran LeMaster-Farrimond
Marc Rosu
Matthew Song
FAIRMONT PREPARATORY ACADEMY
Elliott Jang
Anika Nunes
Cayla Shvartsman
SERVITE HIGH
Parker Buetow
CYPRESS
CYPRESS HIGH
Katie B. Lee
OXFORD ACADEMY
Om Gupta
Matthew M. Hong
Daniel Hwang
Hilo N. Luu
Cindy Q. Nguyen
Trina C. So
Nathan Q. Truong
Theodore T. Vang
Jaden Zhang
FOUNTAIN VALLEY
FOUNTAIN VALLEY HIGH
Sophie Hsieh
Nathan Palli
Katelyn Tran
Nolan Tran
FULLERTON
SUNNY HILLS HIGH
Rhea Ji
Danielle Kim
Kevin Lee
Leo Lee
Brandon Phung
Tyler Schroeder
TROY HIGH
Dorian Y. Aleman
Charles A. Breeden
Brian H. Buehler
Baixuan Chen
Melinda Y. Chen
Eunsung M. Cho
Anirudh Govada
Craig S. Gu
Aadi N. Hanchate
Yuxuan He
Kyle Herdrich
Zhaoyuan Huang
Audrie Kim
Cynthia D. Kung
Roger Y. Li
Tyler J. Lu
Aaryan Mukherjee
Vedanth Narsina
Alexander K. Nguyen
Saanya M. Patel
Avni A. Patil
Tyler R. Pham
Herbert Qin
Sijin N. Qu
Mateo R. Sauceda
Michelle Z. Tan
Anmol S. Uppal
Alex Y. Wang
Joshua H. Wu
TianLang Xiong
Le Xu
Jacob A. Yu
Ivan G. Zimmerman
GARDEN GROVE
BOLSA GRANDE HIGH
Lena Giang
PACIFICA HIGH
Clayton G. Nguyen
HUNTINGTON BEACH
HOMESCHOOL/ONLINE SCHOOL
Anne Lieblang
HUNTINGTON BEACH HIGH
Lily S. Franzese
MARINA HIGH
Derick M. Chhuon
IRVINE
BECKMAN HIGH
Bethany Cheung
Melody Fang
Carson F. Gan
Rohan Hablani
Ian I. Heo
Mattea L. Kim
Suraj S. Shah
Shunqi Xiao
CREAN LUTHERAN HIGH
Daniel Hahn
Matteo Hernandez
David Wong
HOMESCHOOL/ONLINE SCHOOL
Naomi Pond
IRVINE HIGH
Audrey Chen
Lennon H. Coffin
Shivani Joshi
Dev B. Mittal
Annika Rout
Sriram S. Vaidhyanathan
NORTHWOOD HIGH
Lauryn Chew
Jordan Chu
Cooper N. Delsman
Howard J. Jung
Susan Kim
Bijou Y. Park
Pragnya Ramkumar
Usman Rana
Elliott H. Roh
Raelle Tiong
Michael X. Wen
Kevin Xie
Nicole T. Ye
Sean S. Yu
PORTOLA HIGH
Adithi A. Aia
Peri Akalin
Hyunsoo Kang
Tyler Kim
Mary J. Lee
William Y. Liang
Claire C. Liu
Suhrith S. Muvvala
Brennon Mye
Keerthana Pillai
Alina Samiullah
Chenpeng Sheng
Yangming Sun
Alana R. Tang
Chloe C. Urianton
Shan-Yu Yeh
Mylyn Zheng
Kerry Zhou
TARBUT V’TORAH COMMUNITY DAY SCHOOL
Jialin Dong
Zhou Quan Gao
Jonathan M. Groner
Cyrus W. Kottmeier
Sio Hong Li
Amber Lin
Zhongshun Rao
UNIVERSITY HIGH
Connor Chan
Leah K. Chen
Claudia Cheng
Zixi Huang
Xiao Jiang
Brianna Liu
Lawrence B. Liu
Mark Menaker
Daniel S. Nam
Coby S. Schulman
Luca G. Valdevit
Justin L. Wu
Angelina M. Yan
Feodor A. Yevtushenko
Linjie Zhao
WOODBRIDGE HIGH
Shandi Chen
Marissa Huang
Shashwat Joshi
Andrew J. Kao
Alexander X. Miller
Yuna J. Noh
Saravanavasan Ramadass
Henry Robbins
Dylan P. Suh
LA HABRA
HOMESCHOOL/ONLINE SCHOOL
Hyeonseo Ryou
WHITTIER CHRISTIAN HIGH
Jonah T. Palicke
LA PALMA
JOHN F. KENNEDY HIGH
Seungwon Jeung
LAGUNA BEACH
LAGUNA BEACH HIGH
Estella Newton
Zoe Tran
LAKE FOREST
EL TORO HIGH
Charlie Segui
LOS ALAMITOS
LOS ALAMITOS HIGH
Michael Garner
Amelia Jen
NEWPORT BEACH
CORONA DEL MAR HIGH
Jillian R. Kaufman
Tyler L. Law
Calvin Parzick
SAGE HILL SCHOOL
Brady Bai
Justin Glasser
Jiawen Ji
Justin Kline
Abigail Ko
Raymond Kuang
Russell Lee
Ryan Manesh
Shaurya Mittal
King Oung
Annika Shah
Abigail Wang
Jonathan Yan
Jiayi Zhang
ORANGE
EL MODENA HIGH
Ruben Lujan
PLACENTIA
EL DORADO HIGH
Evan Nam
Catherine Nguyen
Ethan Woo
VALENCIA HIGH
Edwin Anthoniraj
Noah Choi
Adam Kim
Carson Lim
Lynzie Lim
Irene Pan
Aashna Shah
Sahej Anand Singh
Leana Sung
Ethan Swarat
Christopher Tran
Caleb Yang
Angela Yao
Evelyn Yao
Delilah Yick
RANCHO SANTA MARGARITA
SANTA MARGARITA CATHOLIC HIGH
Jingze Dai
Chloe A. Forsyth
Katherine Rackohn
Angelina Tao
TESORO HIGH
Julia Bernaldo
David Crider
Hannah Gu
Harrison Pope
Connor Smith
SAN JUAN CAPISTRANO
CALIFORNIA ONLINE SCHOOLS
Isabel K. Borges
Josephine M. Lee
J SERRA CATHOLIC HIGH
George T. Joseph
Jackson D. Story
Hansford Warner
SAN JUAN HILLS HIGH
Ryan D. Waung
SANTA ANA
FOOTHILL HIGH
Luke G. Bravo
ORANGE COUNTY SCHOOL OF THE ARTS
Hanna Heger
Alana Liang
Paul Seo
VILLA PARK
VILLA PARK HIGH
Kaden Oyenoki
YORBA LINDA
YORBA LINDA HIGH
Xenia Lee
Jia Tong Lin
Aaron Luo
Austin Truong
Mikayla Wang
Zishuo Xu
Related Articles
This California town was ravaged by a wildfire. Seven years later, schools are still recovering Teachers sue over Trump’s immigration crackdown, saying students are staying home Jurupa schools sued over transgender athlete by 3 girls volleyball players Estancia High unveils $42 million performing arts center, fulfilling a decades-old promise Unions rally in Long Beach to urge CSU to accept state loan, provide raisesHence then, the article about these orange county students are 2026 national merit scholarship semifinalists was published today ( ) and is available on The Orange County Register ( Middle East ) The editorial team at PressBee has edited and verified it, and it may have been modified, fully republished, or quoted. You can read and follow the updates of this news or article from its original source.
Read More Details
Finally We wish PressBee provided you with enough information of ( These Orange County students are 2026 National Merit Scholarship semifinalists )
Also on site :
- How Nashville’s Music Row Went MAGA in 2025
- Stunning ISS Photo of Florida, Cuba Captures & 039;Moonglint& 039;
- This 22-year-old college dropout is generating $700,000 a year from ‘AI slop’ videos that people sleep through