EVANSTON, Ill. – Several students from Pasco and Hillsborough counties are among the more than 16,000 semifinalists eligible for National Merit Scholarships.
The National Merit Scholarship Corporation recently announced nominees that qualified by taking the 2025 Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test. Semifinalists represent less than 1% of high school seniors nationwide, according to the NMSC.
Semifinalists from Pasco County schools included:
- Academy at the Lakes – Walter Levy.
- Hudson High – Stephanie Burgos.
- Land O’ Lakes High – Julian W. Coburn, Narendran Karikkathil, Akaash K. Patel and Khushi R. Talati.
- George M. Steinbrenner High – Zaina S. Dubey, Denis Kurylev, Abhinav S. Muvva, Sydney G. Rayburn, Owen D. Schousboe and Hudson P. Thompson.
- Gulf High – Chris Misquith.
- Homeschool – Javen J. Waechter.
- J.W. Mitchell High – Suraj Paidela, Isabella Porcelli and Ishaanth Ravichandran.
- Kirkland Ranch Academy of Innovation – Julian Gutierrez.
- Pasco High – Alexander Villalvazo Mendez.
- Wesley Chapel High – Joash Park.
- Wiregrass Ranch High – Aarna Barr, Sebastiano F. Endara-Sargeant and Sydney C. Kim.
Semifinalists from Hillsborough County schools included:
- Academy of the Holy Names – Hadley M. Angle, Cristina B. Contreras, Katelyn Hoar and Margarita M. Valdez Puente.
- Berkeley Preparatory School – Ravin Alahakoon, Jay Alvarez, Nicholas Capo, Damian Caraballo, Jianlin Chen, Charles Fisher, Kailash Gowda, Oliver Hernandez, Christopher Leonardo, Chilok Mak, Simona Pimiento, Carson Radnay, Ryan E. Rich, Aryan Saha, Walter Stephens, Akarsh Thalakola and Dhruv S. Tummala.
- Bloomingdale High – Jacob J. Abraham, Lawrence V. Derosier and Emerson J. Spencer.
- Brandon Academy High – Brian Nguyen.
- Braulio Alonso High – Alex L. Kohler and Havisha Mula.
- C. Leon King High – Stuart Dickinson, Amber B. Jiang, Jerry P. Lee, Frederick Li, Satchel F. Puhr and Sheridan A. Yenter.
- Carrollwood Day School – Shreya Chatterjee, Alyssa Chen, Sahana Chhabra, Gabriel Lopez, Aadi Patel and Nishant Shah.
- Dr. Kiran C. Patel High – Aarya Bhuta and Christian Y. Yi.
- H.B. Plant High – Caitlin Q. Du, Jackson T. Fowler, Gabriel J. Kastner and Ian A. Pegler.
- Hillsborough High – Disha S. Abburi, Pranav Gadipathi, Nayana Jayakumar, Daniel M. Kim and Samantha L. Tinley.
- Jesuit High – Joseph J. Acosta, Juan D. Amador, Austin W. Boyle, Tyler D. Frank, Rafael Ludovice, Rhys A. Marriott, Ethan G. Smith, William B. Tuomy, Evan G. Voor and William M. Weaver.
- Jule F. Sumner High – Ayden M. Creech.
- Middleton High – Parv R. Kothari, Kanu Lala, Andrew J. Logan, Sonum Mittal, Matthew F. Monteiro, Nivedha Narayanan, Saahil Nayar, Archit Pandey, Shreyas N. Penugonda, Harith Talapaneni, Andrew P. Thomas, Saicharan Vutukuri and Ronit H. Yeotikar.
- Plant City High – Westin T. Brooks and Simpa N. Oboro.
- Riverview High – Alexander E. Guirguis.
- T.R. Robinson High – Lucia Borunda, John C. Joura and Atrina Zahedi.
- Tampa Catholic High – Gregory Doyle and Lucas Ruan.
- Tampa Preparatory School – Stone Font, Maximilian Karmazyn and Alan Ralston.
- Walter L. Sickles High – Ishan Devpura, Vivaan Gupta, Saketh R. Kolla, Aarti Raghunathan, Kylie Tran and Camilo E. Utria-Salgado.
