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These Suffolk County Students Named National Merit Scholarship Semifinalists

A group of Long Island high school seniors put in the work and now they’re in the running for one of the most prestigious academic honors in the country.

These Long Island high school seniors put in the work and now they’re in the running for one of the most prestigious academic honors in the country.

These Long Island high school seniors put in the work and now they’re in the running for one of the most prestigious academic honors in the country.

Photo Credit: Canva/pixelshot

Hundreds of students from across Nassau and Suffolk counties were named as semifinalists in the 70th annual National Merit Scholarship Program.

They join more than 16,000 other students from across the United States after earning high marks on the Preliminary SAT during their junior year.

In order to become finalists, students and their high school must submit a detailed scholarship application which includes their academic record, an essay, and shows participation in school and community activities.

Students must also demonstrate leadership abilities and highlight employment experience and any honors and awards they received.

National Merit Scholarship winners of 2025 will be announced between April and July 2025. Winning students will receive scholarships of $2,500.

The following high school seniors from Long Island were named semifinalists:

Nassau County:

Bellmore (John F. Kennedy High School):

  • Mar Prainito

Bethpage (Bethpage High School):

  • Joseph Bashker
  • Ibrahim Rana

Cedarhurst (Hebrew Academy of the Five Towns and Rockaway):

  • Sean Harris
  • Floral Park

Floral Park (Floral Park Memorial High School):

  • Edward Shen

Franklin Square (H. Frank Carey High School):

  • Julian Santana

Garden City (Garden City High School):

  • Soham Bera
  • Mannat Jain
  • Jeffrey Li
  • Hunter MaGuire
  • Simone Oustatcher
  • Daniel Shohdy
  • Amy Xiao
  • Lynn Yang
  • Alicia Zhang

Garden City Park (Mineola High School):

  • Robert Ely

Glen Head (North Shore High School):

  • Seamus Hughes
  • Raymond Lin
  • Wenqi Xiao

Great Neck (Great Neck South High School):

  • Luna Bae
  • Christina Bai
  • Megan Chin-Lam Chan
  • Edmund Gan
  • Jonathan Jia
  • Ruiqi Liu
  • Paige Louie
  • Althea Ou
  • Yilin Qiao
  • Sarah H. Sun
  • William Tsang
  • Evelyn Won
  • Erin Wong
  • Yujin Wu
  • Edward Xu
  • Ivan Xu
  • Richard L. Xu
  • Edison Yuan
  • Jixuan Zhang
  •  Laura Zhang
  • Zican Zhang
  • Kalli Zhu

Great Neck (Great Neck Village High School):

  • Calvin Chang

Great Neck (John L. Miller - Great Neck North High School):

  • Johnathan Ahdout
  • Justin J. Chen
  • Valerie Lan
  • Jacob Levine
  • Ashley M. Liu
  • Aiden Maher
  • Dillan Palma
  • Daliah Segal
  • Lotus W. Shwe
  • Tamas Smulovics
  • Isaac Xu
  • Isaac Yan
  • Logan Z. Ye
  • Zachary Zar

Great Neck (North Shore Hebrew Academy High School):

  • Ilana Greenberg

Hempstead (Crescent School):

  • Rafeea Rahman

Hempstead (Sacred Heart Academy)

  • Erica Revill

Hewlett (George W. Hewlett High School):

  • Rachel Chen

Hicksville (Hicksville High School):

  • Kimberly Widjaja

Jericho (Jericho High School): 

  • Shi-Tao Chang
  • Justin Chen
  • Ryan Cheung
  • Katie-Jiwoo Choi
  • Vishrut Goyal
  • Misha Gujja
  • Lilly Horowitz
  • Michael Jiao
  • Lisa Jin
  • Edeline Jung
  • Safir Khandaker
  • David Kim-Shoemaker
  • Michelle Liu
  • Samyra Mahiba
  • Agastya Mittal
  • Max Scharf
  • Gabrielle Shahaf
  • Madeline Shek
  • Ashlyn Thitibordin
  • Vincent Yang
  • Jerry Zhang
  • Leo Zhao
  • Lydia Zhou

Lawrence (Rambam Mesivta High School):

  • Ari Khavulya

Levittown (Division Avenue High School):

  • Matthew Hartmann

Locust Valley (Friends Academy):

  • Terry Ye

Locust Valley (Locust Valley High School):

  • Giovanni Gambino
  • Locust Valley (Portledge High School)
  • William Bodian
  • Kjell Goldstein

Lynbrook (Lynbrook High School):

  • Charisse Cueto

Manhasset (Manhasset High School):

  • Sophia Chainani
  • Hannah Chang
  • Jonathan Chen
  • Mingxin Chen
  • Colin Hairabedian
  • Loic Hairabedian
  • Jackson Kang
  • Jonas Kim
  • Chelsea Lim
  • Rachel Liu
  • Alex Lu
  • Stephen Lu
  • Henry Ma
  • Peter Martelli
  • John Matos
  • Grace Punzalan
  • Alena Tsai
  • Emily Zhao

Massapequa (Massapequa High School):

  • Ryan Keane

Massapequa (Plainedge High School):

  • Alec Anderson

Merrick (Sanford H. Calhoun High School):

  • Kyle Park

Mineola (Chaminade High School):

  • Michael F. Atteritano
  • Quinn D. McWilliams
  • Ryan T. Nicol
  • Ronin Rugolsky

New Hyde Park (Herricks High School):

  • Maya Aboutaleb
  • Afnan Ali
  • Shome Chakraborty
  • Lucy Liu
  • Diane Ma
  • Krish Maheshwari
  • Pratham Patel
  • Maximilian Peng
  • Kaitlyn Rams
  • Vidhi Shah

New Hyde Park (New Hyde Park Memorial High School):

  • Brice Chiu
  • Rachel Jacob
  • Clayton Yu

Oceanside (Oceanside High School):

  • Shehreyar Ahmad
  • Old Westbury (The Wheatley School):
  • Viraj Pahuja
  • Adriana Petrizzo
  • Will Sellerberg
  • Lauren Shin
  • Dian Yang

Oyster Bay (Oyster Bay High School):

  • Brandon Antonetti
  • Adrian Kim

Plainview (Plainview - Old Bethpage John F. Kennedy High School):

  • Ryan Chin
  • Aadi Mehta
  • Dylan Reimer
  • Amie Yang
  • Jillian Zhang

Port Washington (Paul D. Schreiber High School): 

  • Jayden Doshi
  • ulian Kimball
  • Austin Li
  • Ezra Schulmiller
  • Brigid Southard

Roslyn Heights (Roslyn High School):

  • Ethan Berkowitz
  • Sarah Fernbach
  • Ethan J. Lee
  • Elaina Li
  • Benjamin Quadri
  • Anika Tolat

Syosset (Syosset High School):

  • Derek Chen
  • Frank He
  • Marcus Hoshino
  • Shan Hsieh
  • Connor Jin
  • Katherine Li
  • Simonne Lim
  • Jasmine Liu
  • Yuyang Liu
  • Sunay Malhotra
  • Raheel Nabi
  • Lance Phung
  • Michael Ren
  • Corey Schack
  • Krishiv K. Shah
  • Jaysukh P. Singh
  • Samuel Wang
  • Zhaotang Wang
  • Joann Woo
  • Katherine Yi
  • Winston Zhou

Valley Stream (Valley Stream Central High School):

  • Marlon Clarke
  • TAarish Talukdar

Valley Stream (Valley Stream South High School):

  • Andy Huang
  • Bahrija Radoncic

Wantagh (Wantagh High School): 

  • Michael A. Muscarnera

Woodmere (Davis Renov Stahlet Yeshiva High School for Boys):

  • Yonatan Schochet

Suffolk County

Bayport (Bayport Blue Point High School):

  • George Rogers IV

Bohemia (Connetquot High School):

  • Alexander DeVita

Brentwood (Brentwood High School):

  • Michael Martinez

Center Moriches (Center Moriches High School):

  • Christopher L. Russo

Cold Spring Harbor (Cold Spring Harbor High School):

  • Ava Coco
  • Milan Lustig
  • Stephen Schmidt
  • Aidan Smith

Commack (Commack High School):

  • Edwin Ji
  • Irene Ma
  • Andreas Melia-Ioannou

Deer Park (Deer Park High School):

  • Reza Zorakhsh

Dix Hills (Half Hollow Hills High School East):

  • Noah R. Berlin
  • Victoria Geller
  • Tea S. Shouldice
  • Makiko E. Stravato
  • Julia Zinkin

Dix Hills (Half Hollow Hills High School West):

  • Arjun Airen
  • Zachary Harel

East Northport (Homeschool/Online):

  • Kevin J. Hsu

East Setauket (Ward Melville High School):

  • Katie S. Duong
  •  Alexander T. Singer
  • Sean M. Skinner
  • Alexander Song
  • Michael Y. Wei
  • Aimee Y. Yang

Greenlawn (Harborfields High School):

  • Francis R. DeGregorio
  • Alexander Y. Meagher
  • Andrew L. Walden

Huntington Station (Walt Whitman High School):

  • John Marr

Kings Park (Kings Park High School):

  • Kyle Wozniak

Lindenhurst (Lindenhurst High School):

  • Jake Albert

Melville (St. Anthony's High School):

  • Joseph Philip

Miller Place (Miller Place High School):

  • Lucy Chang
  • Sean Pepe

Northport (Northport High School): 

  • Dora Fields
  • Michaela Tumsuden

Port Jefferson (Earl L. Vandermeulen High School):

  • Aoife Hogan

Port Jefferson Station (Comsewogue High School):

  • Melissa K. Romano

Rocky Point (Rocky Point High School):

  • Matteo Gravinese

Sag Harbor (Pierson High School):

  • Kai H. Basseches

  • David B. Kriegsman

Smithtown (Smithtown High School West):

  • Joseph A. Davide
  • Catalina A. Kreitzman
  • Natallie E. Marshall
  • Sierra M. Needham
  • Heng Ye

St. James (Smithtown High School East):

  • Daanish Bassi
  • Jolene H. Cao
  • Neal J. Cusumano
  • Anagh Gupta

Stony Brook (The Stony Brook School):

  • Isabel Guo
  • Thomas Lin

Westhampton Beach (Westhampton Beach High School):

  • Meghan Pomroy

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