Leander ISD Superintendent Bruce Gearing, Ed.D., announced that 41 LISD students are distinguished as Semifinalists in the 2021 National Merit Scholarship Program based on their outstanding performances on the Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test (PSAT/NMSQT).
I commend these outstanding students for seizing the opportunity to excel among their peers from across the country,” Superintendent Bruce Gearing, Ed.D., said. “It is a credit to them, their families and their dedicated teachers that they are in such elite company, and I join our LISD community in congratulating them for their achievements.”
LISD saw a rise in the number of students earning accolades with a 51.8% increase from the previous school year (27 to 41 students).
The National Merit Scholarship Program honors individual students who show exceptional academic ability and potential for success in rigorous college studies. National Merit Semifinalists, who represent less than one percent of U.S. high school seniors, include the highest-scoring entrants in each state. These academically talented high school seniors will compete for scholarships worth more than $30 million that will be offered next spring.
National Merit Semifinalists are as follows:
Cedar Park High School
Khoi Le
Christopher Lee
Stella Shipps
Luke Taylor
Leander High School
Karenna Caton
Kayla Gillen
Jharna Kamath
Brandon Nguyen
Haya Saidi
Edward Speer
Glenn High School
Jada Beauchea
Rouse High School :
Joshua Puleski
Vandegrift High School
Noel Abitzen
Arya Anantula
Akansha Chawla
Natalee Chu
Quin Collins
Patrick Devaney
Ashira Edelheit-Rice
Asha Karmakar
Samuel Kim
Shreyas Kumar
Jasper Lee
Daphne Longmire
Edward Lu
Emily Luppino
Anish Pandya
Devan Patel
Alexander Pickard
Claire Rapier
Hunter Ross
Maci Simmons
Lekha Sripathi
Garrett Stevenson
Samual Weiss
Eric Yang
Vista Ridge High School
Gabriel Smith
Thomas Wismar