Eighty Hillsborough County Public School Students Named Semifinalists in the 2026 National Merit® Scholarship Program

Hillsborough County Public Schools

September 11, 2025

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

MEDIA CONTACT:  Tanya Arja or Debra Bellanti

Hillsborough County Public Schools

Office of Communications

813-272-4060

Tampa, Fl. (September 10, 2025) – Hillsborough County Public Schools (HCPS) is proud to announce that eighty students have been named Semifinalists in the 2026 National Merit Scholarship Program, by the National Merit Scholarship Corporation (NMSC®).

Over 1.3 million juniors in about 20,000 high schools entered the 2026 National Merit® Scholarship program by taking the 2024 Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test (PSAT/NMSQT®), which served as an initial screen of program entrants.


The nationwide pool of 16,000 Semifinalists, representing less than one percent of U.S. high school seniors, includes the highest-scoring entrants in each state. More than 15,000 are expected to advance to the Finalist level and will be notified in February of this designation.


A Semifinalist must have an outstanding academic record throughout high school, be endorsed and recommended by a high school official, write an essay, and earn SAT or ACT scores that confirm the student’s earlier performance on the qualifying test.


These academically talented high school seniors have the opportunity to continue in the competition for some 6,930 National Merit ® Scholarships worth nearly $26 million that will be offered next spring.


"We are incredibly proud of our Hillsborough County students who have been recognized as Semifinalists. This is a monumental achievement, and the entire school district celebrates their success," said Superintendent Van Ayres.


Congratulations to the Hillsborough County Public School Semifinalists in the 2026 National Merit® Scholarship Program:

  • Brad A. Beenhakker,
    Alonso

  • Shreeya D. Patel,
    Alonso

  • Chase A. Copeland,
    Bloomingdale

  • Nathan B. Simoneau,
    Bloomingdale

  • Erik Mesic,
    Durant

  • Samuel M. Fernandez,
    Gaither

  • Lyna Tran,
    Hillsborough

  • Ajay Cherukumilli,
    King

  • Lillian N. Clark,
    King

  • Daniel Park,
    King

  • Jackson T. Granado,
     Lennard

  • Luis E. Lopez Rondon,
     Leto

  • Chavda, Aryan K.,
    Middleton

  • Gowda, Vihaan R.,
    Middleton

  • Churnika Gudla Venkatasi,
    Middleton

  • Easton I. Hardy,
    Middleton

  • Srijan R. Kumbam,
    Middleton

  • Siddharth Mohan,
     Middleton

  • Vidyarth R. Sathya,
    Middleton

  • Ritvik Talwani,
    Middleton

  • Aaryan T. Vaishya,
    Middleton

  • Casey A. Ayres,
    Newsome

  • Kaitlin M. McClellan,
    Newsome

  • Hope E. Brillhart,
    Plant

  • Alexander N. Brinn,
    Plant

  • Jake S. Geiger,
    Plant

  • Sophie A. Girenkova,
    Plant

  • John R. Lamont,
    Plant

  • Rohan J. Morgan,
    Plant

  • Lindsay A. Paulson,
    Plant

  • Quinn J. Rukholm,
    Plant

  • Ryan A. Setzer,
    Plant

  • Joshua C. Welch,
    Plant

  • Samuel C. Willoughby, 

    Plant

  • Kiara L. Lester,
    Plant City

  • Eduardo J. Orrego,
    Riverview

  • William H. Kim,
    Robinson

  • Ava Lekarczyk,
    Robinson

  • Isabella R. Musolino,
    Robinson

  • Ammar A. Omar,
    Robinson

  • Lily M. Polender,
    Robinson

  • Uma R. Razdan,
    Robinson

  • Sophia B. Rodriguez,
    Robinson

  • Sophie R. Farnan,
    Sickles

  • Michael J. Quick,
    Sickles

  • Karthik Jeevan,
    Steinbrenner

  • Hannah J. Luikart,
    Steinbrenner

  • Shaan R. Patel,
    Steinbrenner

  • Elain R. Roji,
    Steinbrenner

  • Raghav Sharma,
    Steinbrenner

  • Andy B. Wu,
    Steinbrenner

  • Anu Badiger,
    Strawberry Crest

  • Ayona Bagui,
    Strawberry Crest

  • Sneha Balaji,
    Strawberry Crest

  • Shreyashi Bodaka,
    Strawberry Crest

  • Shelby L. Bray,
    Strawberry Crest

  • Sri Nithya P. Eriki,
    Strawberry Crest

  • Varun M. Gajjar,
    Strawberry Crest

  • Arun P. Gottipati,
    Strawberry Crest

  • Mahee Gupta,
    Strawberry Crest

  • Gaurav Jain,
    Strawberry Crest

  • Priyanshu Jha,
    Strawberry Crest

  • Ishan H. Kalaria,
    Strawberry Crest

  • Hyunmin S. Kim,
    Strawberry Crest

  • Andrew M. Oh,
    Strawberry Crest

  • Sayali S. Padhye,
    Strawberry Crest

  • Radha Panchal,
    Strawberry Crest

  • Dev N. Parikh,
    Strawberry Crest

  • Adwaith Praveen,
    Strawberry Crest

  • Sujay Rajesh,
    Strawberry Crest

  • Ashank K. Saravanan,
    Strawberry Crest

  • Shruti R. Shankar,
    Strawberry Crest

  • Bhavya H. Talati,
    Strawberry Crest

  • Vaidehi Tyagi,
    Strawberry Crest

  • Vritti A. Udasi,
    Strawberry Crest

  • Sahasra Vedhere,
    Strawberry Crest

  • Eesha L. Venkatesh,
    Strawberry Crest

  • Alexander Y. Wang,
    Strawberry Crest

  • Ashley J. Zhang,
    Strawberry Crest

  • Vy Doan,

    Wharton

To learn more about the National Merit® Scholarship program visit: nationalmerit.org

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