39 ACPS students earn merit finalist positions

Alachua County Public Schools almost hit a new district record after 39 students qualified to be finalists in the National Merit Scholarship Program, one less than the 2009 record.

To enter the program, students must hit certain scores on the Preliminary SAT/ National Qualifying Test to enter the semifinalist bracket. Then students must meet the standard when taking the SAT. 

The program also requires a teacher recommendation and an essay submission. Finalists could earn large assistance with college tuition through the program. 

Here’s a list of ACPS finalists: 

• Buchholz High School
• Anjana Balachandar
• Angela Chen
• Eric Diao
• Michael Fahn
• Rena Feng
• Guarav Gajavelli
• Christopher Han
• Kevin He
• Jacob Islam
• Edward Jeong
• Erick Jiang
• Devika Kumar
• Timmy Li
• Aidan Linebarger
• Angela Lou
• John Sin
• Jeffrey Xue
• Albert Yang 
• Xiya Zhou

• Eastside High School
• Hyungjun Choi 
• Avery Colon 
• Richard Jiang
• Vedant Karalkar
• Ronan Morris
• Rachel Parks
• Atharva Pathak
• Ahmik Paul
• Sukhman Sidhu 
• William Wang

• Gainesville High School
• Aidan Bloch 
• Grant Gravlee
• Janani Kumaran
• Nicholas Lloyd
• Eleanor Parks-Church
• Gayathry Prabhakaran
• Robert Ryan 
• Katherine Sammy
• Holly Snow
• Rachel Young.