Allen High School recently announced this year’s National Merit Semifinalists and Commended Scholars for the 2021 National Merit Scholarship Program. The College Board also released this year’s National Recognition Program Scholars 

Twenty-nine students from Allen qualified this year out of the 16,000 who are recognized. One  million five hundred thousand students take the PSAT as juniors in high school and enter the contest each year with the top 1% being chosen. 

“I was super excited when I heard the news that I was a semifinalist,” senior  Rupali Chowdhry said.

Semifinalists, commended scholars and national recognition program scholars  are featured on the AISD and high school website and on social media. 

“We have gotten recognition from the school, district, and even Congressman Van Taylor’s office sent a certificate for it,”senior  semifinalist Siya Sharma said.

Semi finalists will submit an application detailing their academic career to win scholarships and will know their results in February. 

“I honestly can’t predict whether or not I’ll be a finalist given the competitiveness of the contest, but I do [know] that I have a strong application,” said  senior Ishita Shah, another semifinalist. 

Seventy-seven students were also selected to be commended scholars after placing in the top 3% of all test-takers and 38 students qualified for the National Recognition Program Scholars by placing in the top 2.5% and being a person of color. 

“I acknowledged that I prepared to the best of my abilities and that there are still positive lessons I can take away from my experience,” senior commended scholar Belle Bridgewater said. 

The 29 Semifinalists are:

 Jehan Ahmed, Suraj Chaturvedi, Ethan Chen, Ashleigh Cheng, Rupali Chowdhry, Lily Fee, Dominick Goedderz, Lane Haden, Elliot Han, Raaida Hasnain, Deshna Karra, Chase Lee, Regina Lin, Simon Lin, Nicholas Merritt, Sudy Qin, Zicheng Qu, Ishita Shah, Siya Sharma, Tara Srinivasan, Avalene Tan, Anika Trehan, Huy Truong, Claire Tsui, Lucas Vaughan, Jonathon Werst, Jonathan Xu, Rayyan Zamir, and Angela Zhang.

The Commended Scholars are:

Jacqueline Adams, Suha Ahsanullah, Tiffney Aina, Mason Allen, Aaden Anderson, Zoe Andrews, Akanksha Arvind, Anika Asher, Mark Ayiah, Dylan Berger, Eiman Bihon, Rahul Bolar, Belle Bridgewater, Kristella Bui, Eddie Cao, Ashley Cernicky, Ansh Chawla, Reyva Chawla, Taylor Davis, Sean Donohue, Nandini Elangovan, Natalie Evans, Ethan Forbes, Matthew Gao, Haadi Gill, Enkhjin Gomboluudev, Ty Hanson, Rebecca Huang, Nikhil Jahagirdar, Salina Jiang, Lauren Jin, Heather Kaplan, Nathan Kim, Nicole King,Ethan Koerber, Kenedee Kordick, Parth Koul, Coral Loach, Kayla Lovejoy, Natalie Maxwell, Aidan McGlothlin, Rithika Naya, Lucie Nguyen, Vivian Nguyen, Shyam Padmanabhan, Daniel Pandyan, Isaac Paneerselvam, Anushree Patel, Giulietta Peleg-Baldino, Sharaf Rashid, Sonali Reddy, Connor Redman, Raheel Rehmatullah, Andres Rodriguez, Emily Russell, David Sajdak, Ritwik Salunke, Jackie Scott, Harshal Seerla, Aneri Shah, Keya Shah, Nikki Shah, Nisarg Shah, Logan Sharpe, Brayden Soffa, Benjamin Steele, Pete Sumethasorn, Ranjana Suresh, Sherwin Thirumavalan, Hayden Tolley, Annan Uddin, Hassan Wajid, Lonny Whitsell, Jason Xie, Yifan Yu, Hasan Zalkout, Zakariya Zidan.

The National Recognition Scholars are:

Tiffney Aina, Mark Ayiah, Eiman Bihon, Braxton Brooks, Raissa Cady, Harrison Dean, Randall Fabyan, Taylor Frost, Yaseen Garboua, Veit Gentry, Cinthia Gomez-Garcia, Molly Hall, Shem Kamau, Zachary Karanja, Jessica Keister, Esrome Kiflezion, Kate Lopez, Diego Mallen, Jennifer Martinez, Mariana Milagres, Abigail Mintline, Lauren Mitchell, Semira Mohamed, Kennedy Nwokorie, Kaitlyn O’Brien, Sebastian Osteguin, Giulietta Peleg-Baldino, Andres Rodriguez, Bethel Samuel, Jackie Scott, Caitlyn Sell, Abdi Sheleme, Sheikh Sohna, Yaphett Tesfatsion, Cierra Trigg, Amy Udeme, Juan Villa Suarez, and Sarah Yakum.