Plano ISD congratulates 60 students named Semifinalists in the 2027 National Merit Scholarship Program.

These students are enrolled at Plano East Senior High School, Plano Senior High School and Plano West Senior High School, and are among more than 16,000 Semifinalists nationwide representing less than 1 percent of U.S. high school seniors who entered the competition by taking the 2025 Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test.

To advance in the competition, Semifinalists must complete a detailed scholarship application, demonstrate an outstanding academic record, earn an endorsement from a high school official, write an essay and submit qualifying SAT or ACT scores. More than 15,000 Semifinalists nationwide are expected to advance to Finalist standing. National Merit Scholarship winners will be announced beginning in April 2027.

Plano ISD’s 2027 National Merit Scholarship Program Semifinalists

• Anish Bairineni, Plano East Senior High School

• Arshiya Bajaj, Plano West Senior High School

• Anika Balakrishnan, Plano West Senior High School

• Amanda Belo, Plano East Senior High School

• Terrell Bennett, Plano East Senior High School

• Craig Benson, Plano Senior High School

• Divya Bhattacharya, Plano West Senior High School

• Enoch Chan, Plano West Senior High School

• Hanke Chen, Plano West Senior High School

• Henry Chen, Plano West Senior High School

• Paul Chu, Plano East Senior High School

• Marcus Chung, Plano West Senior High School

• Harsheel Desai, Plano West Senior High School

• Grace Ding, Plano West Senior High School

• Anna Du, Plano East Senior High School

• Stephen Duncan, Plano Senior High School

• Guy Feder, Plano West Senior High School

• Aiko Fleming, Plano East Senior High School

• Jean Gan, Plano West Senior High School

• Joshua Gan, Plano West Senior High School

• Amit Goldman, Plano West Senior High School

• Skanda Gopikannan, Plano West Senior High School

• Faisal Hamadeh, Plano West Senior High School

• Saman Hiremath, Plano Senior High School

• Ananya Javali, Plano East Senior High School

• Anshveer Kang, Plano East Senior High School

• Nicole Kim, Plano West Senior High School

• Sanjit Konda, Plano Senior High School

• Rithik Kommineni, Plano West Senior High School

• Veda Kumar, Plano West Senior High School

• Sai Lakkamaneni, Plano Senior High School

• Andrew Lee, Plano West Senior High School

• Jake Li, Plano East Senior High School

• Jacob Liang, Plano West Senior High School

• Zayd Mahmud, Plano West Senior High School

• Ishaan Nirmal, Plano West Senior High School

• Evan Pan-Wang, Plano West Senior High School

• Ari Penaganti, Plano West Senior High School

• Rishi Porwal, Plano West Senior High School

• Sanvi Porwal, Plano West Senior High School

• William Prasetyo, Plano East Senior High School

• Vasundara Rajan, Plano East Senior High School

• Ishveer Randhawa, Plano East Senior High School

• Vijay Shivnani, Plano West Senior High School

• Sidharth Siva, Plano West Senior High School

• Soundarya Srikanth, Plano West Senior High School

• Eric Tang, Plano West Senior High School

• Neel Tipnis, Plano West Senior High School

• Austin Truong, Plano East Senior High School

• Andria Wang, Plano West Senior High School

• Daniel Wang, Plano West Senior High School

• Ricky Wang, Plano West Senior High School

• Jack Wright, Plano Senior High School

• Matthew Xie, Plano West Senior High School

• Erika Xu, Plano West Senior High School

• Leon Zeng, Plano West Senior High School

• Cindy Zhang, Plano West Senior High School

• Alexander Zhao, Plano West Senior High School

• Esther Zhao, Plano West Senior High School

• William Zhou, Plano West Senior High School

*This list includes students who have a publication consent and release form on file with the district.