September 15, 2020

Congratulations to the 103 Plano ISD high school seniors who have earned semifinalist standing in the 66th annual National Merit Scholarship Program.

These semifinalists began their journey along with over 1.5 million juniors in nearly 21,000 high schools who entered the 2021 National Merit Scholarship Program by taking the 2019 Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test (PSAT/NMSQT®), which served as an initial screen of program entrants. The nationwide pool of semifinalists, represents less than one percent of U.S. high school seniors and includes the highest-scoring entrants in each state. The number of semifinalists in a state is proportional to the state’s percentage of the national total of graduating seniors.

These academically talented high school seniors have an opportunity to continue in the competition for some 7,600 National Merit Scholarships worth more than $30 million that will be offered next spring. To be considered for a Merit Scholarship® award, semifinalists must fulfill several requirements to advance to the finalist level of the competition. Over 90 percent of the semifinalists are expected to attain finalist standing, and more than half of the finalists will win a National Merit Scholarship, earning the Merit Scholar® title.

2021 National Merit Semifinalists

Plano East Senior High School

• Humza M. Afzal
• Priya Bapna 
• Alexander J. Boyd
• Chloe E. Chan
• Alicia R. Daley
• Kanishk Garg
• Melody D. Hong
• William C. Hurley
• Emily Lai
• Luke T. Maden
• Pratyush Mallick
• Manaal Mohammed
• Venu M. Poruri
• Patrick D. Premilan
• Myhewet E. Seyoum
• Rachel E. Simms
• Chloe Tee
• Avirat A. Thakor
• Yuvraj S. Uddanti
• Pranav B. Varanasi
• Tiffany E. Wei
• William Zhang 

Plano Senior High School

• Jishnu Basu
• Aditi Bhaskar
• Aditi Buch
• Alyssa N. Campbell
• Stephanie C. Goff
• Khushi C. Hiremath
• Molly J. Holsinger
• Tisha Nakakes-Nguyen
• William H. Otte
• Brianna V. Phan
• Avi Puranik
• Paul G. Resmer
• Gwyneth T. Svatek
• Emma Ting
• Alex J. Tomkinson
• Samuel J. Wang
• Matthew Xu
• Kyle H. Youngquist
• Daniel Z. Yu
• Kelly F. Zhao

Plano West Senior High School

• Erin T. Albertin
• Tejas Bansal
• Kellen M. Cao
• Ryan Y. Chai
• Natalie N. Chapin
• Amanda L. Chen
• Michael Chen
• John S. Choo
• Noah Y. Chung
• Arman Deendar
• Ivana P. Durcanska
• Brendan D. Ehrman
• James E. Fawcett
• Yash Garg
• Wesley Geng
• Justin A. Hall
• Bryanna M. Hernandez
• Cindy F. Hu
• Eric T. Jiang
• Adithya Karthik
• Lamisah A. Khan
• Yejean Kim
• Rohan R. Kolhe
• Tanvi G. Kulkarni
• Sugandha Kumar
• Madeleine R. Lee
• Renee H. Li
• Matthew J. Lin
• Phillip M. Liu
• Michelle L. Ma
• Joshua B. McDonald
• Pratyush Mohapatra
• Momen A. Muhammad
• Alexander W. Ni
• Alyssa Nie
• Rishi Niranjan
• Jessica J. Ouyang
• Aashna Pathi
• Pranav Pattatathunaduvil
• Claire K. Ponder
• Govardhan T. Poondi
• Joyce L. Qin
• Juliette N. Reeder
• John K. Rho
• Yash Saxena
• Sophie A. Schochet
• Andy X. Shufer
• Caleb D. Stam
• Asim Suhail
• Tanvi P. Talla
• Victor K. Tsao
• Camille T. Wenick
• Emma Z. Ye
• Lillian K. Ye
• Angela A. Yi
• James S. You
• Griffyn R. Young
• Peter J. Yu
• Jessica Zhang
• Lucy L. Zhang
• Vivian Zhang

To become a finalist, the semifinalist and a high school official must submit a detailed scholarship application and 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. Finalists will be notified in February. All National Merit Scholarship winners will be selected from this group of finalists. Merit scholar designees are selected on the basis of their skills, accomplishments and potential for success in rigorous college studies, without regard to gender, race, ethnic origin or religious preference.