The National Merit Scholarship Corporation has announced this year’s National Merit $2,500 Scholarship winners and corporate-sponsored scholarship winners. Amongst the Scholars are 28 impressive Frisco ISD students.
The students first entered the 2022 National Merit Scholarship Program when they took the October 2020 Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test during their junior year, which served as an initial screen of program entrants. In Frisco ISD, the PSAT/NMSQT is offered during the school day each fall at no cost to all 10th and 11th grade Frisco ISD students.
The highest-scoring participants, representing less than one percent of the nation’s seniors, were named Semifinalists. Of the 16,000 Semifinalists, 110 FISD students were named National Merit Semifinalists.
To be considered for a National Merit Scholarship, Semifinalists had to fulfill several requirements to advance to Finalist standing. Each Semifinalist submitted a detailed scholarship application that included an essay written by the Finalist and a recommendation written by a high school official.
Scholars were selected by a committee of college admissions officers and high school counselors, who appraised a substantial amount of information submitted by the Finalists and their high schools. This included the student’s application, essay, recommendation letter, academic record, the difficulty level of subjects studied and grades earned, scores from the PSAT/NMSQT and all contributions and leadership on campus and in the community.
Only 15,000 students from across the country were named Finalists in the 2022 National Merit Scholarship Program.
Congratulations to these FISD student scholarship winners judged to have the most robust combination of academic skills and achievements, extracurricular accomplishments and potential for success in their future postsecondary studies. Scholars may use their awards at any regionally accredited U.S. college or university.
$2,500 National Merit Scholarship Winners
NMSC finances most of these single-payment National Merit $2,500 Scholarships and the winners named in each state are proportional to the state’s percentage of the nation’s graduating high school seniors.
Sarika Ahire, Centennial - Computer Science
Shreya Bhandari, Independence - Computer Science
Xuanxuan Dong, Centennial - Healthcare Administration
Khush Gupta, Memorial - Computer Science
Biyanka Hati, Liberty - Medicine
Aryan Khatri, Independence - Computer Science
Vivek Kogilathota, Reedy - Computer Science
Yee Hong Pua, Lebanon Trail - Electrical Engineering
Raghav Punnam, Independence - Computer Science
Rushil Randhar, Frisco - Bioinformatics
Sujay Rasamsetti, Independence - Computer Science
Ean-Hawk Veluz, Heritage - Aerospace Engineering
Vagmin Viswanathan, Liberty - Computer Engineering
Ghazal Yadav, Independence - Neurology
Nithik Yekollu, Independence - Entrepreneurship
Chloe Yim, Independence - Law
Matteo Kimura, Independence - Computer Science
Champers Fu, Lebanon Trail - Computer Engineering
Charlie Zhang, Liberty - Surgical Medicine
Jennifer Zhang, Lebanon Trail - Computer Science
Corporate-Sponsored Merit Scholarship Winners
Corporate-sponsored National Merit Scholarship awards are financed by about 140 corporations, company foundations and other business organizations across the country. Most of these awards are renewable for up to four years of college undergraduate study and provide annual stipends.
Ahmad Elbeltagy, Wakeland - Neurosurgery
Kelly Liu, Liberty - Medicine
Pranathi Prasanna, Reedy - Pediatrics
Piyush Rath, Heritage - Surgical Medicine
Aaliyah Sherfuddin, Centennial - Healthcare
Suhas Vakalapudi, Memorial - Computer Science
Ryan Zheng, Liberty - Environmental Policy
Krishna Madhav, Lebanon Trail - Environmental Policy
NMSC will name winners of college-sponsored Merit Scholarship awards over the summer. By the conclusion of the 2022 competition, about 7,500 Finalists will have been selected to receive National Merit Scholarships totaling nearly $28 million.