National Merit Scholarship Semifinalists Announced

The National Merit Scholarship Corporation announced 23 Downingtown Area School District (DASD) students as semifinalists in the 70th annual National Merit Scholarship Program on September 11. The program honors individual students who show exceptional academic ability and potential for success in rigorous college studies.

Congratulations to the following DASD students for earning achievement as National Merit Scholarship semifinalists:

DOWNINGTOWN HIGH SCHOOL EAST

• Rishi Aitha

• Ronak Suchindra

• Leo Sun

• Lily Tabar

DOWNINGTOWN HIGH SCHOOL WEST

• Derek C. Knaak

• Mei Satler

• Pavan Ulaganathan

DOWNINGTOWN STEM ACADEMY

• Praneil Balike

• Anushka Chakraborty

• Neha Chigurupati

• Syreeta Das

• Nicholas John

• Anvita Kallam

• Prajith Kattamuri

• Samarth Kolanupaka

• Ronika Medagam

• Pranav Menon

• Dhriti Parulekar

• Ranvir Patankar

• Sahil Reddy

• Pranav Subramaniyan

• Akshaya Venkatesh

• Melody Xu

Students entered the 2025 National Merit Scholarship Program by taking the 2023 Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test (PSAT/NMSQT®) during their junior year, which served as an initial screen of program entrants. 

Semifinalists 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. From over 16,000 semifinalists, more than 15,000 are expected to advance to the finalist level. All National Merit Scholarship winners will be selected from that group.

To learn more about the National Merit Scholarship Program, visit the National Merit Scholarship Corporation website.