Twenty Alachua County Public Schools (ACPS) seniors have been named semifinalists in the 2027 National Merit Scholarship Program, a 25% increase from the previous year.
ACPS had 16 students named National Merit Scholarship semifinalists last year and 21 in 2024.
Fewer than 1% of the nation’s high school seniors earned semifinalist status in this year’s program.
More than 1.2 million students took the Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test as high school juniors during the last school year. Approximately 16,000 students were named semifinalists based on their performance on the exam.
The Alachua County students now have the opportunity to advance to finalist status. In addition to achieving strong SAT scores, students must submit applications detailing their academic achievements, awards and honors, leadership activities, teacher recommendations and an essay.
Alachua County Public Schools’ semifinalists are:
Buchholz High School: Jubili Bamzai-Wokhlu, William Bigger, Mira Bubenik, Alexander Hughes, Dylan Lamb, Jonathan Lin and Amy Xiao.
Eastside High School: Derek Ai, Ethan Dodds, Neha Gupte, Noah Jang, Jaden Jeng and Matheus Ribeiro Do Vale.
Gainesville High School: Gabriel Duterte, Navya Goyal, Sigrid Noah, Alejandro Probert and Anna Russ.
Professional Academies Magnet at Loften High School: Aurora Conklin and Evelyn Orsini.