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32 Pittsford Seniors Recognized in 2025 National Merit® Scholarship Program

Pittsford Central School District congratulates its 16 Semifinalists and 16 Commended Students recently recognized in 2025 National Merit® Scholarship Program. Pittsford’s Semifinalists are among the 16,000 highest-scoring entrants and Commended Students placed among the top 50,000 entrants selected from an initial pool of 1.3 million students who took the 2023 Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test (PSAT/NMSQT®), which served as an initial screen of program entrants.

Semifinalists, who represent less than one percent of U.S. high school seniors, will advance in the competition for a chance to win one of 6,870 scholarships. While Commended Students will not advance in the competition, they are recognized for their outstanding potential for academic success.

Congratulations to the following students!

Semifinalists

  • MHS: Andrew He, Surya Man, James Mou, Sami Ali Ozdemir, Timothy Seo, Andrew Shen, Howard Tang, John Wadsworth, Rowan Wilkens
  • SHS: Christopher Gargan, Franklin Scharf, Deven Spencer, Kimberly Wang, Alexander Wu, Matthew Xie, Elijah Yaar

Commended Students

  • MHS: Aria Banks, Alexander Delregno, Cailey Huang, Fiyinfoluwa Okwechime, Cayden Rathnam, Mara Ricks, Thehara Ubayawardena, Taylor Wray
  • SHS: Lena Gilbertson, Vansh Gujarati Christopher Johnson, Koren Mahmoodi, Grace Prasad, Sohan Shrikhande, Logan Tomeny, Harper Wallace

To become a Finalist, the Semifinalist and a high school official must submit a detailed scholarship application, in which they provide information about the Semifinalist’s academic record, participation in school and community activities, demonstrated leadership abilities, employment, and honors and awards received. A Semifinalist 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, and in February 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 on the basis of their skills, accomplishments, and potential for success in rigorous college studies, without regard to gender, race, ethnic origin, or religious preference.