The Tampa Bay area is home this year to 132 National Merit Semifinalists. The students, whose names were announced this week, are among 16,000 high school seniors nationwide competing in the 2020 National Merit Scholarship program.
They will compete for some 7,600 scholarships worth a total of more than $31 million to be offered in the spring.
The process began when these students and about 1.5 million of their peers took the Preliminary SAT as juniors. Their scores were among the highest in their respective states. And, as semifinalists, they represent an elite group — less than 1 percent of high school seniors in the U.S.
Among the factors considered in the selection are a student’s academic record, participation in school and community activities, leadership abilities, employment, other honors and awards, and SAT scores. Students also must be recommended by a high school official and write an essay.
The vast majority of semifinalists will be named finalists in February. Here is a list of the local semifinalists:
Hillsborough County
Alonso High
Alexis N. Gyselinck
Berkeley Preparatory School
Esha Bhatia, Sean M. Florek, Nicholas A. Hajjar, Robert H. Heyck, Ryan Jacobs, Clara M. Jergins, Kayla McLoone, Alexandra L. Politowicz, James J. Stifler and Anuksha S. Wickramasinghe
Blake High
Kian Fotouhi, Leigh R. Ives, Kendall M. Palmer and Kara E. Saville
Bloomingdale High
Jordan L. Chastain and Ryan J. Harding
Brooks DeBartolo Collegiate High
Noah R. Kilpatrick
Carrollwood Day School
Emily R. Flinter
Hillsborough High
Natalia Artz, Hirsh Kabaria, Vivek B. Kondapavuluru, Reema D. Patel and Brianna M. Wang
Homeschool
Kathryn A. Reinhardt (Valrico) and Mark T. Thivierge (Lutz)
Jesuit High
Robert B. Andersen, Christopher J. Browy, Spencer V. Farfante, Anthony V. Kirchner, Mark E. Rumsey, Richard Sebek, Alexander E. Skantze, Collin R. Talbot and Giovanni B. Taylor
King High
Fariah Ansari, Arpan Bagui, Cassandra Colaco, Amiya C. Gupta, William F. Li, Khegan E. Meyers, Aditi A. Mishra, Aniruth S. Narayanan, Amy P. Pham, Adam M. Rowan, Nicole Su, Kelly Y. Tian, Ashvin Tyagi, Nafisa I. Uddin, Uma Vogeti and Lixin Zheng
Middleton High
Zachary Melson and Ankit Veerendra
Newsome High
Alexander G. Dyer
Plant High
Alyssa B. Crocker, Lindsey M. Gabler, Ryan B. Hobson, Hamilton M. Jones, Lucy J. Morris, Tien M. Nguyen, Alixandra S. Rubin, Hayden C. Watson and Junhao Zhang
Riverview High
Natalia Forero
Robinson High
Vasishta Akinapalli, Charles T. Hobby, Kayla N. Huynh, Alexandra C. Kirkner, Rohan R. Nadgir, Srikavin Ramkumar and Sierra K. Shellabarger
Seffner Christian Academy
Erin K. Blauth and Riley B. Skiles
Sickles High
Savari Datta
Steinbrenner High
Jonathan E. Barbara, Rebekah F. Hurwitz, Matthew R. Lee and Rana X. Schere
Strawberry Crest High
Julia G. Bower, Brodie S. Brown and Nicholas A. Sherwin
Tampa Preparatory School
Jayden C. Capella and Sania K. Munir
Wharton High
Valeria M. Gutierrez and Shehzad S. Shah
Pinellas County
Clearwater Central Catholic
Paola E. Medina
East Lake High
Bennett A. Carollo, Noelle Esposito and Kelsey A. Robinson
Lakewood High
Ethan N. Nguyen and Rajat Patwari
Largo High
Michael A. Marcotte, Joshua R. Mott, Charles B. Phillips and Haidyn C. Sekeres
Palm Harbor University High
Salma Alandary, Cailey M. Carpenter, Mateusz Plaza, Maya Srinivasan, Vipin Suren and Matthew D. Werneken
St. Petersburg Collegiate High
Calvin M. Finley
St. Petersburg High
Eleanor J. Anderson, Paul G. Fernandez, Aidan Higgs, Sophia H. Hirst, Rivers C. Lenholt, Jack R. McKyton and Sebastian Newell
Tarpon Springs High
Alexander C. Theophilopoulos
Pasco County
Pasco High
Nicholas C. Gray and Joseph S. Hart
Land O’Lakes High
Shannon S. Chen, Achyudhan R. Kutuva, Kathy Liu, Steven Miltenberger, Stanley S. Moonjeli, Elizabeth A. Thorner, Maxwell M. Twitmyer, Takashi Xu and Jennifer R. Zartman
Gulf High
Riya T. Choksi, Krisztian V. Cseh, Derek E. Kaplan and Evan Kaplan
Mitchell High
Bethany A. Bradshaw, Dustin G. Rendell and Amber L. Seaberg
Cypress Creek Middle High
Mindy L. Do
Wiregrass Ranch High
Aidan J. Persaud
Hernando County
Hernando High
Caleb B. Gibson
Springstead High
William An