Alachua County Public Schools (ACPS) set a record this year with 42 students named National Merit Scholarship finalists, the most in district history. Twenty-seven of those students won National Merit Scholarship Corporation (NMSC) scholarships.
The district’s previous record was 40 finalists, set in 2009. ACPS came close to that level again in 2022 with 39 finalists, and finally broke the record this year.
“These students have shown themselves to be among the top students in the nation,” interim Superintendent Shane Andrew said in a statement. “Earning finalist status and winning a National Merit Scholarship is a tribute to their talent and hard work, but it’s also a tribute to the people who helped them achieve that level of success, including their teachers and families.”
Each year NMSC awards scholarships to a group of students, selected based on the merit of their accomplishments in their schools and communities, test scores and submitted essays. First the students must qualify as semifinalists by earning the nation’s highest Preliminary SAT/National Qualifying Test (PSAT/NMSQT) scores. While over 1.5 million students take the test each year, NMSC only names about 16,000 semifinalists.
After reaching the semifinalist category, students must earn high SAT scores and submit applications listing their other academic achievements, awards, honors and leadership activities, as well as teacher recommendations and an essay.
This year, Buchholz High School had 24 finalists, 13 of whom earned NMST scholarships, including Kevin Zheng, who won two. Six of Eastside High School’s 10 finalists and seven of Gainesville High School’s eight earned scholarships.
The finalists, with scholarship winners noted with an asterisk (*), are as follows:
Buchholz High School: Himal Bamzai-Wokhlu, Avery Bernstein, Hannah Ciupe*, Samuel Cohen*, Nicholas Dang, Rishi Gadikota*, Angela Gao, Tyler Holland*, Ahan Mishra, Andrey Nikitin*, Aditya Vardhan Pasumarti*, Abhinav Pothuri*, Nicole Qian, McKayla Ro*, Tucker Shea, Anwyn Tanner*, Isabelle Tseng, Zachary Urbine*, Sophia Vernon*, Zach Xiao, William Xu, Carolynn Zhao*, Jonathan Zheng, Kevin Zheng**
Eastside High School: Maryanne Armstrong*, Rebekah George*, Jakob Gorham, Claire Kuntz*, Elizabeth Matthias*, Linda Mentz, Hirbod Sargeran*, Maui Schwartz, Maggie Yan*, Benjamin Zou
Gainesville High School: Harold Bishop*, Jacob Callaway*, Cormac Davis, Michelle Han*, Nicholas Hirsch*, Siya Patel*, Jake Qiu*, Charles Ye*.