Good News

MCPS has 189 semifinalists in the 2023 National Merit Scholarship competition. The semifinalists will compete nationally for scholarships that will be announced in the spring. The competition is sponsored by the National Merit Scholarship Corp.

The MCPS semifinalists come from 14 high schools: Bethesda-Chevy Chase, Montgomery Blair, James Hubert Blake, Winston Churchill, Clarksburg, Damascus, Northwest, Poolesville, Richard Montgomery, Rockville, Walter Johnson, Wheaton, Walt Whitman and Thomas S. Wootton.

Semifinalists from MCPS were selected from among high school juniors who were top scorers on the 2022 PSAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test. About 15,000 semifinalists across the nation are expected to advance to the finalist stage of the competition.

Finalists will be considered for $2,500 National Merit scholarships, plus additional corporate-sponsored and college/university-sponsored scholarships that will be announced later in the school year.

The MCPS semifinalists are:

Bethesda-Chevy Chase

Eli H. Buehler  
Lucas Das  
Jeffrey L. Olsen  

Montgomery Blair

Joshua A. Brown  
Michael Z. Chen  
Yuna Chun  
Andy G. Cui  
Jonathan M. Fan  
Uriel Y. Frumkin  
Nathan Z. Gehl  
Solomon M. Gold 
Mandy Y. Guo  
Daniel H. He  
Christopher Q. Jin  
Jerry S. Jing  
Nicholas P. Khil  
Dami Kim  
Jacen T. Li  
Alexander Liu  
Derek P. Mu  
Matthias R. Nigmann  
Elliott C. Paschane  
Joshua O. Piety  
River T. Qiu  
Angela Y. Shen  
Leila S. Simons  
Viveka Sinhaa  
Rihalya Sivakumar  
Matthew M. Slagle  
Erik Sofiaj  
Jerry H. Song  
Sarah A. Stone  
Sudhish M. Swain  
Reed R. Swearingen  
Colby J. Trenor  
Evan Z. Wang  
Michael X. Wang  
Steven Y. Wang  
Isak J. Wilson  
Angela Y. Wu  
Sean Xie  
Andy Ying
Sophia L. Zeng  
Lipeng Zhu  

James Hubert Blake

Conrad N. Blom

Winston Churchill

Raza A. Ahmad
Angie Chen  
Sabrina Chou  
Pavani Durbhakula  
Elise L. Huang  
Ha-Yeon Jeon  
Bernard L. Jin  
Soham G. Jinsi
Jonah I. Kerchner  
Jaehee Lee  
Simran N. Mattikalli  
Lara M. Najjar  
Alvia Naqvi  
Kevin C. Peng  
Henry Shan
Ty Sun
Auva Vaziri  
Kevin Xue  
Roy K. Yang  
Abigail Zhang  
Allison Zhang  

Clarksburg

Yalini Anbalagan
Zoe H. Tavares  

Damascus

William S. Lee

Northwest

Dwarakesh Baraneetharan
Anthony J. Wang  

Poolesville

Vaishnavi Banda  
Lahari Bandaru  
Neel Bhattacharyya  
Nathaniel C. Chen  
Daisy B. Dastrup  
Patrick T. Foley  
Anil T. Ghosh  
Ronan G. Graff  
Leavy Hu  
Soumya P. Jailwala  
Aditya Lahiri  
Amy A. Le
Jasmine Q. Li  
Daniel Mathew  
Elizabeth C. Newton  
Aidan H. Paul  
Nora E. Rudmann  
Andrew W. Sha  
Milo A. Stammers  
Emma Y. Zou  

Richard Montgomery

Advika Agarwal  
Sandral O. Baigal
Maximilian P. Belyantsev  
Marissa C. Boucher  
Zaida M. Bowsher  
Joseph Chen
Daniel Chernyak  
Catherine W. Chong
Charlyn C. Chu  
Carolyn L. Conner  
Anson Cook  
Samwit Dangol  
Nitya Donthi
Sofia G. Eisenberg  
Joshua W. Fan 
Joy Y. Jiang 
Lucas Kang  
Georgia Levine  
Lin Han
Daria K. Melikova  
Katherine E. Pease  
Oluwatomisin Tiam Fotie  
Hadassah N. Ucko  
Kidus N. Walelign  
Angelina Xu  
Claire J. Xu  
Alexander C. Yeung  
Grace J. Young  
Michelle Yu  

Rockville

Avraham Y. Logan  
Maximilian G. Pankowski

Walter Johnson

Charles J. Brenner
Carol Li
Tariq R. Merchant
Mauricio Sanchez Toral
Nathan H. Tang  
Colin R. Tierney  
Jasmin D. Wu  
Allison Xu  
Daniela K. Znam  

Wheaton

Menelik G. Mekonen  

Walt Whitman

Waleed M. Aslam  
Daniel Berglund  
Diya Bhattacharjee  
Pedro B. De Bolle  
Tomas L. Forney  
Madeline H. Kaltman  
Jacob D. Lerman  
Timothy J. Lindstrom  
Rowan J. Lodato  
Brian K. Mason  
William P. Mayo  
Arjun R. Mohan  
Anthony J. Noya  
Emily S. Owens  
Avery A. Tsao  
Samantha F. Walker  
Harrison J. Walley  
Amy M. Xu  

Thomas S. Wootton

Aylin E. Aarhus 
Shreyas Bachu  
Digonto K. Chatterjee  
Rhea Chelar  
Anthea L. Chu
Carolyn Fu  
Yusuf A. Hasan  
Samantha M. Lau  
Michael N. Lipari  
Jeffery Z. Liu  
Arjun N. Ram
Alex Ye  

Student-Athlete Leadership Council Holds Kickoff Meeting

On Sept. 12, the kickoff meeting for this year’s Student-Athlete Leadership Council (SALC) was held at Carver Educational Services Center in Rockville. The council is made up of two students from each MCPS high school and seven at-large members, who meet bi-monthly to share ideas on the interscholastic athletics program. Launched in 2018, SALC cultivates academic, athletic and community excellence by engaging student-athletes to serve as district level leaders within the MCPS athletics program.

The SALC planning committee includes athletics specialists Dessalyn Dillard, Paint Branch High School; Gina Grubb, Poolesville High School; Jermaine Howell, Albert Einstein High School; Larry Hurd, Jr. Walter Johnson High School; Tom McTighe, Wheaton High School and Jody Tyler, Northwest High School, along with Robin McCue, administrative assistant for the athletics office.

A Few Good Headlines from Over the Summer

Montgomery County neighborhood comes together to celebrate 'World's Best Bus Driver' Mr. Ralph

B-CC student-led nonprofit pens letters, raises thousands for Mexican youth shelter

City of Rockville Honors Two Community Members for Environmental Excellence

Maryland students transform middle school with modern art mural

Snowden Farm Student Wins Statewide Economic Poster Contest

Montgomery Sports Hall of Fame Announces New Inductees for 2023

Clarksburg High Invited to Sing at World Culture Fest

Abbott Elementary Star Comes Home for a Bethesda Show

Mrs. Estelle Moore Begins Her 50th Year Teaching in MCPS