The National Merit Scholarship Corporation recognized 74 Frisco ISD students across all 10 high schools as Semifinalists in the 65th annual National Merit Scholarship Program. 

These 74 students represent a record number of Frisco ISD Semifinalists, a 21% increase over the 61 students in the Class of 2019. 

These 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 in the spring of 2020. 

The 2018 Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test (PSAT/NMSQT®) served as the initial screen for this honor. These students represent less than one percent of U.S. high school seniors. 

To be considered for a Merit Scholarship® award, Semifinalists will fulfill several requirements to advance to the Finalist level of the competition. 

To become a Finalist, the Semifinalist must submit a detailed scholarship application, in which they provide information about their academic record, participation in school and community activities, demonstrated leadership abilities, employment experience 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. 

Merit Scholar designees are selected on the basis of their skills, accomplishments, and potential for success in rigorous college studies.

These students will be recognized at the February School Board meeting and will receive a yard sign to celebrate.

Congratulations to these students and the teachers and staff who support them.

Centennial High School
Jack Couture
Ketaki Devani
Anushka Gupta
Anisha Holla
Saee Joshi
Lisa Kan
Esha Kanna
Alex Kim
Joshua Ni 
Hamza Suhail
Prazul Wokhlu 

Frisco High School
Shreekrishna Rout
Taylor Sweeney

Heritage High School
Maansi Chodavarapu
Sooraj Karthik
James Li
Samyuktha Sakthi Senthil Kumar
Kireeti Singam Setty 

Independence High School
Joel Augustine
Surekha Balakrishnan
Joanne Chen
April Chung
Daniel Kinghorn
Julia Pearson
Grace Wang 

Lebanon Trail High School
Amogh Channashetti
Arundhati Ghosh
Juliana Lu
Steven Lu 
Austin Ma
Ibrahim Mardini
Samyukt Metta
Ryan Mok
Rohan Nagabhirava
Harshitha Pelaprolu
Mainavi Reddy
Tanay Rishi
Avery Sinnathamby
Isabel Tu

Liberty High School
Reed Carlisle
Jasmine Marie Culilap
Eric Lynn
Keshav Narasimhan
Kapil Rampalli
Jessie Rho
Kaviyasri Saravanan
Andrew Sen
Sona Shah
Nandasri Talluri
April Xu
Judy Zhou 

Lone Star High School
Tanner Denton
Rishikumar Gunasekaran
Naomi Mo 

Memorial High School
Andrew Boris
Wafee Choudhury

Reedy High School
Heba Ajmal
Yunbeen Bae
AvaGrace Doyle
Caitlin Fukumoto
Ishaan Guha
Joongbom Park
Asish Penubothu
Shrenik Porwal
Tucker Spradley

Wakeland High School
Shrey Addagatla
Chance Badon
Kaitlyn Crow
Quentin MacFarlane
Ella McManus
Veer Mehta
Samay Sahoo
Caroline Sauer
Matthew Ward