Congrats to Our National Merit Scholarship Semifinalists

32 APS seniors are among the nation's top academically talented high school students.

Thirty-two Albuquerque Public Schools high school seniors have been named semifinalists in the 2022 National Merit Scholarship Program. They are among 16,000 students from across the nation competing for $30 million in scholarships.

To qualify as a semifinalist, students earned top scores on the 2020 Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test. Millions of students in tens of thousands of high schools take the exam each year. The nationwide pool of semifinalists, representing less than 1 percent of U.S. high school seniors, includes the highest-scoring entrants in each state.

"To be recognized as a National Merit Semifinalist is a huge honor for students because it represents years of hard work and dedication to learning," said APS Superintendent Scott Elder. "Congratulations to this bright group of students. We are proud of your accomplishment and expect great things from you in the future."

The 2022 APS Semifinalists

Albuquerque High School

• Alexander S. Maynes-Pointon
• Malcolm Parnall
• Kaya A. Perce
• Anastasia Smith

College and Career High School 

• Zoey Michel E. Adams
• Alyssa L. Cunningham 

Early College Academy

• Pierce O. Christison
• Savannah L. Davidson

Eldorado High School

• Adam G Oliphant 
• Ainsley A. Paas
• Joseph R. Watson

La Cueva High School

• Pascal R. Andreas
• Rahul Chalamala
• Milidu N.Jayaweera
• Francesca B. Jones
• Andrew Kim
• Prashamsa Koirala
• Oliver L. Kuang
• Elan Z. Landau
• Henry Li
• Derrick T. Niu
• Yana A. Outkin
• Hanan J. Soicher
• Mario F. Sumali
• Emilia Vignogna-Browne
• Benjamin A. Willhite
• Janie Xiong
• Jenny Xiong
• Melody F. Yeh 
• Brandon Yoo

Manzano High School 

• Mason C. Parrish

Sandia High School 

• Annette I. Miller 

From the approximately 16,000 semifinalists, about 15,000 are expected to advance to the finalist level, and in the spring they will be notified of this designation. All National Merit Scholarship winners will be selected from this group of finalists. Merit Scholar designees are selected based on their skills, accomplishments, and potential for success in rigorous college studies, without regard to gender, race, ethnic origin, or religious preference.

Those students will compete for one of three merit scholarships:

• $2,500 National Merit Scholarship (2,500 awarded nationally)
• Corporate-sponsored Merit Scholarship Award (about 1,000 awarded by about 220 corporations and businesses nationally)
• College-sponsored Merit Scholarship (about 4,100 awarded by about 180 colleges and universities).