“We are incredibly proud of our eight National Merit semifinalists,’’ said Dr. Ashley Whitely, Lakota’s superintendent.
“Their hard work and commitment to their education is evident and we look forward to their future accomplishments.”
Less than one percent of the nation’s high school seniors earn that distinction, which is based on results of the 2023 preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying test taken as a junior.
More than 16,000 students nationally, were named semifinalists from the1.3 million students who took the test last year. About 95 percent are expected to be named finalists next February, qualifying them for $2,500 National Merit and other scholarships.
“These students are leaders in the classroom, on the field and court, on stage, in the performing and visual arts and throughout our community as they serve and give back,’’ said Ben Brown, Mason High School principal.
“We look forward to cheering them along on their journey.”
Altogether, about 6,870 scholarships worth nearly $26 million are expected to be awarded between April and July 2025. This is the 70th year of the competition.
The semifinalists listed by school are:
Butler County
Badin: Kathleen Burke
Fairfield: Hadi Dabdoub, Garrett Von Gostomski
Lakota East: Margaret Jones
Lakota West: Tram Cao, Ishanvi Karthikeyan, Evan Kershaw, Prithika Padmanabhan, Preston Robinson, Maryam Tunkara
Ross: Ethan DeMoss, Benjamin Schuler
Talawanda: Victor Li, Pierce Noltemeyer
Warren County
Kings: Derek Harris, Matthew McMahon, Lucas Webster
Little Miami: David Zarins
Mason: Samuel Aronoff, Vivian Chang, Zoe Fowler, Harshita Ganga, Aneesh Iyer, Avaneesh Konda, Avril Kong, Noah Lee, Sreshta Loka, Jayden Lu, Luke Lu, Mihir Mahajani, ndriy Misyura, Kanika Rahalkar, Ramya Rajan, Raymond Shao, Aarin Sharma, Ethan Sieveking, Rohan Singh,Aneesh Surapaneni, Carson Wang, Jerry Yank, Lucy Zhang, Mingjia Zhang, Tanya Zhang, Erica Zheng, Alber Zhong
Mason, home schooled/online school: Charis Ng
Springboro: Patrick Keller, Phoebe Matthew, Ethan Rhodes, Edrees Saleem, Ethan Virtue
About the Author