PLEASANT HILL, Calif.– Contra Costa County Superintendent of Schools Lynn Mackey celebrates 101 high school seniors who have been recognized among 16,000 Semifinalists in the prestigious 71st annual National Merit Scholarship Program.
“Achieving National Merit Scholarship Semifinalist status is a remarkable accomplishment,” said Contra Costa County Superintendent of Schools Lynn Mackey. “I would like to commend the schools, teachers, and support staff who have inspired and helped these students thrive academically. These young people represent the top one percent of high school seniors nationwide. Congratulations to each of them for advancing in this highly competitive program.”
Dougherty Valley High School in the San Ramon Valley Unified School District had 35 students earn Semifinalist honors, the most in the county. In total, students from 15 high schools across Contra Costa County are represented on the nationwide list. The schools with Semifinalists include Dougherty Valley (35), California (14), Campolindo (10), Monte Vista (10), Miramonte (6), and Northgate (5). Acalanes and Athenian each have four Semifinalists. Las Lomas has three Semifinalists. Alhambra, Heritage, and San Ramon have two Semifinalists. Meanwhile, Carondelet, College Park, De La Salle, and a homeschool each have one Semifinalist.
These exceptional students now move forward in the competition for approximately 6,930 National Merit Scholarships, collectively worth nearly $26 million, to be awarded in spring 2026. To become Finalists, Semifinalists must meet rigorous academic and program requirements. Historically, about 95 percent of Semifinalists reach Finalist status, and roughly half of those earn the title of National Merit Scholar.
More than 1.3 million juniors from over 20,000 U.S. high schools entered the 2026 program by taking the 2024 Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test (PSAT/NMSQT®). Semifinalists represent the highest scorers in each state, making this recognition a significant academic milestone.
Scholarship winners will be announced between April and July 2026, joining a distinguished group of over 389,000 students who have earned the Merit Scholar title since the program’s inception.
For more information on the National Merit Scholarship Program, visit www.nationalmerit.org.
CONTRA COSTA COUNTY NATIONAL MERIT SCHOLARSHIP SEMIFINALISTS
ACALANES HIGH SCHOOL – 4
- Chen, Sze Ting
- Murphy, Nevis
- Roberts, Emily
- Tsang, Evan
ALHAMBRA HIGH SCHOOL – 2
- Schick, Matthew
- Williams, Jack
ATHENIAN SCHOOL – 4
- Abola, Oliver
- Greenman, Roark
- Raghavan, Uma
- Wu, Vivian
CARONDELET HIGH SCHOOL – 1
- Gunadi, Chloe R.
CALIFORNIA HIGH SCHOOL -14
- Ding, Tobias N.
- Ehrlich, Daven S.
- Gudisay, Apoorva L.
- Jain, Kavin
- Kwan, Ryan N.
- Markovskii, Gleb
- Moore, Stephanie M.
- Morov, Dmitrii
- Ngo, Avery I.
- Pola, Sushrut
- Rawat, Aariv
- Thakkar, Vidhi
- Wedewer, Annalise
- Yin, Sophia
CAMPOLINDO HIGH SCHOOL – 10
- Chng, Alexander
- Culinco, Isabelle
- Kasalanati, Bhavana
- Li, Michael
- Ma, Hanson
- Mukundan, Nishta
- Patel, Sonal
- Schwartz, Ryan
- Thorn Leeson, Chloe
- Tsai, Ching An
COLLEGE PARK HIGH SCHOOL – 1
- Sobol, Leah C.
DE LA SALLE HIGH SCHOOL – 1
- Salter, Heath
DOUGHERTY VALLEY HIGH SCHOOL – 35
- Ayyadevara, Anirudh
- Bhardwaj, Agastya
- Bhatia, Abir S.
- Chen, Kyle A.
- Dala, Vedanth P.
- Gill, Divya
- Guo, Felix
- Jain, Rishi
- Kabra, Anushka
- Karthik, Rhea
- Lal, Anjani
- Liu, Jiarong
- Liu, Timothy S.
- Lou, Patrick S
- Maram, Aditya R.
- Nguyen, Ethan D.
- Nuthi, Varshaa
- Poruri, Anshika S.
- Ramaswamy, Avyay
- Rao, Nikhil U.
- Rao, Samarth H.
- Samudrala, Kavya
- Savla, Ishaan A.
- Shah, Abhinav A.
- Shaligram, Anuraag
- Sharan, Prianca
- Shen, Aaron H.
- Sripada, Srishti
- Thottempudi, Aahna
- Wang, Robert Y.
- Wong, Nicholas H.
- Wu, Eric
- Xiang, Julia M.
- Ying, Victor Z.
- Zhou, Jerry
HERITAGE HIGH SCHOOL – 2
- Aaron, James
- Jin, Caroline
HOMESCHOOL – 1
- Tittiranonda, Joshua
LAS LOMAS HIGH SCHOOL – 3
- Kirsch, Diego
- Park, Teresa
- Yankelevich, Alissa
MIRAMONTE HIGH SCHOOL – 6
- Chan, Ryan
- Guymon, Riley
- Liu, Mifay
- Sidhu, Simrat
- Wang, Emma
- Yu, Vincent
MONTE VISTA HIGH SCHOOL – 10
- Datta, Adya
- Hahm, Delphine S.
- Li, Blanche
- Liu, Thomas B.
- Melvani, Rishal A.
- Natraj, Karthik
- Ruan, Lana G.
- Srivastav, Revaant
- Trehan, Saira
- Wang, Daniel P.
NORTHGATE – 5
- Clark, Aleah
- Khaund, Robyn
- Morucci, Avanti
- Scattergood, Ava
- Yao, Angie
SAN RAMON VALLEY HIGH SCHOOL – 2
- Akella, Vaishnavi N.
- Matsis, Markos P
About Contra Costa County Office of Education
One of 58 counties in California, Contra Costa County has the 11th largest public-school student population in the state (approximately 169,394 students). Officially established in 1932, CCCOE has a long history of providing direct services to some of the county’s most vulnerable students, including young people who are incarcerated, homeless, or in foster care, as well as students who have severe physical or emotional challenges.
CCCOE also provides support services to schools and school districts in Contra Costa County; services that can be handled most effectively and economically on a regional basis rather than by each of the county’s 287 schools or 18 school districts. These services range from budget approval and fiscal support to technology infrastructure, communication support, and high-level professional development opportunities for educators. CCCOE maintains a website at www.cocoschools.org.
