Sixty-nine Loudoun County Public Schools (LCPS) students from 13 LCPS high schools, plus LCPS students attending Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology, have been named National Merit Scholarship semifinalists. These LCPS students were among the 1.3 million high school juniors who entered the 2026 National Merit Scholarship Program by taking the 2024 Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test (PSAT/NMSQT), which served as an initial screen of program entrants. More than 16,000 students were named semifinalists in the 71st annual National Merit Scholarship Program.
Below are the names of the LCPS National Merit semifinalists:
Briar Woods High School
Erica S. Baek
Sofia C. Burbano
Benjamin Cai
Daksh Challa
Nishka Illapani
Sanica Rao
Jake J. Summers
Arnav Surapaneni
Broad Run High School
Macey J. Reid
Yash Sreepathi
Amy H. Woo
John Champe High School
Arush Bodla
Aarav D. Chhapgar
Arav P. Paladiya
Dominion High School
Ryan B. Bui
Quinn T. Daignault
Claire S. Howard
Freedom High School
Lily M. Jacoby
Aneesh K. Kandimalla
Derek Q. Nguyen
Rhea Nirmal
Rohith Rayudu
Yashita Singh
Brian C. Tay
Heritage High School
Shourya Prakash
Independence High School
Smaran Bonthula
Satvik S. Dronavalli
Joshua C. Hollie
Shaurya R. Jeevagan
Matthew Li
Tanvi Nare
Chloe H. Park
Rohith G. Ranga
Lightridge High School
Tanush Bhardwaj
Aarush Kumar
Anishreddy Mummadi
Rohit Rajakumar
Ishaan Senthil Kumar
Potomac Falls High School
Steve M. Romano
Riverside High School
Ishan R. Alla
Danae K. Boikos
Madeleine H. Garvin
Andrew M. Iwamoto
Alps A. Xia
Rock Ridge High School
Siddha S. Bambardekar
Riya K. Cherukuri
Iha Gorjala
Arjun Gupta
Arnav Gupta
Darsh V. Shetty
Ajay K. Vinjamuri
Stone Bridge High School
Ummaima Amir
Skye J. Ocampo
Liam L. Phlegar
Noah H.Son
Woodgrove High School
Elijah W. Banta
Kate R. Verry
Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology
Anusha Agarwal
Navya Arora
Ananya Bhatt
Sai Pratik Buddhana
Jessica Chen
Matthew A. Kao
Esha S. Madamalla
Nived Nandakumar
Kavin Narayanan
Viola R. Pande
Neil N. Ramarapu
Abeni A. Smith
These LCPS semifinalists are eligible to compete for more than 6,930 National Merit Scholarships worth nearly $26 million. To be considered for a Merit Scholarship award, semifinalists must fulfill several requirements to advance to the finalist level of the competition. Three types of Merit Scholarship awards will be offered in 2026: National Merit $2,500 scholarships, corporate-sponsored scholarships, and college-sponsored scholarships. Merit Scholarship winners will be announced in phases next spring and summer.
The nationwide pool of semifinalists, which represents less than one percent of U.S. high school seniors, 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.