Over 100 high school students from Naperville and surrounding area schools have been named National Merit Scholarship semifinalists in the National Merit Scholarship Corporation’s scholarship program.
Students from Naperville School District 203, Indian Prairie School District 204, Benet Academy in Lisle, and Illinois Mathematics and Science Academy in Aurora are among more than 16,000 semifinalists nationwide.
Naperville 203 semifinalists
From Naperville 203’s high schools, there are 23 students from Naperville North and 13 from Naperville Central:
Naperville North High School
- Sana Akbari
- Allison Baugh
- Tabetha Black
- Sarah Boettcher
- Ethan Chen
- Emilie Fann
- Hrshikesh Guptha
- Emily Hu
- August Junttila
- Zoya Photowala
- Krithik Prasad
- Sydney Queen
- Steven Robbins
- Matthew Simpson
- Havis Stalin
- Kendall Swiderski
- Jeffery Tong
- Kyle Wang
- Benjamin Wigley
- Addison Wu
- Michelle Xiang
- Aiden Xie
- Allen Xu
Naperville Central High School
- Cheran Balakumaran
- Audrey Cheng
- Hannah Chu
- Acer Colbenson
- Riya Dondapati
- Stefan Ilic
- Lily Jia
- Hannah Leong
- Harry Liu
- Carina Rao
- Amy Yang
- Nina Zhan
- Darren Zhou
IPSD 204 semifinalists
From IPSD 204’s high schools, 17 students have been recognized from Metea Valley, 10 from Waubonsie Valley, and 26 from Neuqua Valley:
Metea Valley High School
- Sreeya Ayyagari
- Amit Bagchi
- Rachel Chen
- Ryan Cotner
- Praneeth Doddi
- Lakshana Gopalakrishnan
- Samia Khan
- Ritika Khurana
- Shreyash Koli
- Claire Leung
- Claire Nang
- Srihan Pasupula
- Tiana Prem
- Eegan Ram
- Ibrahim Saadeh
- Viraj Vyas
- Lucy Yuan
Waubonsie Valley High School
- Alice Ho
- Azim Kazmi
- Emily Park
- Salil Patki
- Ketavharsh Prem
- Vyshnavi Reddy
- Pranav Satapathy
- Amogh Shivanna
- Isabella Woolard
- Sahith Yarlagadda
Neuqua Valley High School
- Kundan Baliga
- Sarthak Behari
- Aditya Byju
- Peter Carroll
- Ananya Chatterjee
- Namrata Chintamaneni
- Kristin Glenn
- Arav Goswami
- Prameet Guha
- Steven He
- Alexander Huang
- Aditi Kaushal
- Siya Malhotra
- Maxwell Mayer
- Rhea Mhashilkar
- Niva Murali
- Varun Nagaraj
- Yule Park
- Om Patel
- Samil Sharma
- Vighnesh Subramanian
- Advaitha Taire
- Robert Yang,
- Katherine Yuan
- Jonathan Zhao
- Grace Zhuang
Benet Academy semifinalists
In neighboring Lisle, a total of six Redwings from Benet Academy are semifinalists:
- Sara Luo
- Benjamin McKendall
- Audrey Olejnik
- William Schaeffer
- Aidan Villasenor
- Maclane Zich
Illinois Mathematics and Science Academy (IMSA)
IMSA in Aurora has 28 students named as seimfinalists
- Ria Bakshi
- Evangeline Beck
- Locklin Bell
- Ethan Charoenpitaks
- Louis Chen
- Saroj Chilakuri
- Michelle Fanjoy
- Tony Han
- Jonathan Handjojo
- Jeev Hora
- Riyan Jain
- Muskaan Kapur
- Samira Koduri
- David Monsess
- Teah Oviedo Navarro
- Karthik Prasad
- Paul Ratasuk
- Aarav Shah
- Atmaj Shelar
- Fatema Shikora
- Mofetoluwa Suleiman
- Julia Sun
- Shomak Tan
- Dominic Tous
- Vishnu Vijay
- Andrew Zhu
- Jack Davis
- Laksh Patel
What is the National Merit Scholarship?
The scholarship program has been operated by the National Merit Scholarship Corporation since 1955. It is funded by NMSC, as well as around 300 business organizations, higher education institutions, and donors.
According to NMSC, “the program recognizes students who show exceptional academic ability and potential for success in rigorous college studies.”
Students initially qualify based on their scores on the Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test (PSAT/NMSQT).
The current semifinalists represent less than 1% of seniors in the U.S., being the highest-scoring entrants in each state.
When will recipients be chosen?
Finalists will be considered based on their academic record, participation in school and community activities, demonstrated leadership abilities, employment, and honors and awards they’ve received, per the release. The non-profit expects that of the over 16,000 semifinalists currently, more than 15,000 of them will advance to become finalists.
The 2026 National Merit Scholarship recipients will be announced starting in April and continuing through July.
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