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
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