Contra Costa County Superintendent of Schools Lynn Mackey proudly acknowledges 100 high school seniors who have been named Semifinalists in the 70th annual National Merit Scholarship Program.
“Congratulations to our outstanding National Merit Scholarship Semifinalists,” said Contra Costa County Superintendent of Schools Lynn Mackey. “Achieving Semifinal status is no small feat. 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.”
Dougherty Valley High School in the San Ramon Valley Unified School District leads the county with 33 students earning Semifinalist honors. In total, 18 Contra Costa County high schools are represented among the over 16,000 Semifinalists nationwide.
The schools with Semifinalists include Dougherty Valley (33), California (12), Monte Vista (11), Campolindo (9), Bentley (7), Miramonte (7), and Acalanes (5). Northgate High School has three Semifinalists. Athenian, El Cerrito, and Las Lomas high schools each have two Semifinalists. Meanwhile, Antioch, Liberty, Carondelet, San Ramon Valley, Alhambra, Berean Christian, and Contra Costa Christian high schools all have one Semifinalist.
These exceptional seniors will now advance in the competition for approximately 6,870 National Merit Scholarships, collectively valued at $26 million, which will be awarded next spring. To qualify for a Merit Scholarship, Semifinalists must meet specific criteria to progress to the Finalist stage. It is anticipated that about 95% of Semifinalists will achieve Finalist standing, and around half of those Finalists will be selected as National Merit Scholars, earning this prestigious title.
Over 1.3 million high school juniors across 21,000 schools entered the 2025 National Merit Scholarship Program by taking the 2023 Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test (PSAT/NMSQT®). Semifinalists represent less than one percent of U.S. seniors, marking the highest scorers in each state. National Merit Scholarship winners for 2025 will be announced between April and July.
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.
I am glad to see that many of today’s high school students continue to study and work hard. It’s a contrast to the people typically covered in the media.
Scroll through those last names and compare to the same list 25-30 years ago and there’s your demographic shift and all the consequences thereof. It’s probably healthy, stagnant things wither after all.
There seems to be a preponderance of one group and a complete absence of another.
Just another US day today.
Congratulations to all the semi-finalist. It’s quite an honor. My cousin received a National Merit scholarship in 1969. He graduated from Miramonte