Several high school students from Forsyth County made it through the first round of the 2021 National Merit Scholarship program, qualifying as some of the top scholastic achievers in the country.

The 55 high school seniors from Forsyth are among 16,000 semifinalists nationwide who are eligible to receive scholarships worth up to $2,500, according to a press release by the National Merit Scholarship Corporation.

About 15,000 semifinalists will be named finalists in February from which National Merit Scholarship winners will be selected beginning in April based on their “skills, accomplishments, and potential for success in rigorous college studies.”

The press release said over 1.5 million juniors from about 21,000 high schools entered the 2021 National Merit Scholarship program by taking the 2019 Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test (PSAT/NMSQT®). The nationwide pool of semifinalists represents less than 1% percent of U.S. high school seniors, and includes the highest-scoring entrants in each state.

Now, semifinalists must submit a “detailed scholarship application, in which they provide information about the semifinalist's academic record, participation in school and community activities, demonstrated leadership abilities, employment, and honors and awards received.

“A semifinalist must have an outstanding academic record throughout high school, be endorsed and recommended by a high school official, and write an essay.”

Alliance Academy for Innovation

Akram M. Faraz

Sanjanna Shankar

Denmark High School

Siddharth Boyeneni

Trinidad Flores

Siddharth V. Ghanta

Varun Goel

Hari Krishna Kumaran

Isabella R. Lafferty

Diya Mohan

Veda S. Nune

Manasi Oleti

Emma J. Oswald

Advika Ramesh

Aryan Thakur

Fideles Christian School

Robert C. Murphy 

Forsyth Virtual Academy

Beatrice V. Evans

Forsyth Central High School

Riley J. Lofgren

Ayush Panda

Ashriitha G. Shanmugam

Shannon K. Tozier

Homeschool

Nithya K. Jayakumar

Lambert High School

Skyler S. Feng

Ruth E. Hong

Kayla M. Howard

Justin Kim

Noah M. Kim

Krishi Kishore

Jacob M. Lee

Jonathan Liu

Sindhura Mettupalli

Apoorva P. Palled

Varun Pateel

Soumya N. Patel

Nuno M Ramos Grangeia Carvalho

Sudipta Rath

Justin Ryu

Patrick Soo

Kevin H. Sun

Michelle C. Wu

John Zhang

Nina L. Zhao

North Forsyth High School

Owen P. Malone

South Forsyth High School

Avinash S. Atluru

Wesley T. Bryant

Riley A. Durbin

James C. Gebhardt

Benjamin J. Hempker

Anjali K. Joshi

Riya Manchanda

Katelyn R. McLean

Pranavvarma V. Munagapati

Dhriti Pentela

Akshitha D. Surapaneni

Aadarsh Vavilikolanu

Kristine S. Yin