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Home » 100 Contra Costa County Students Named 2025 National Merit Semifinalists

100 Contra Costa County Students Named 2025 National Merit Semifinalists

by CLAYCORD.com
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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.

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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

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ACALANES HIGH SCHOOL – 5

Garcia, Zachary J.

Hoeberechts, Kaya Y.

Johnson, Julia H.

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Ristow, Carsten L.

Yoshinaka, Jake M.

ALHAMBRA HIGH SCHOOL – 1

Kaur, Jaap

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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.

4 Comments
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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.

9
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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.

2
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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

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