3/10/2022 -- Thirty Parkway seniors have been named finalists in the 2022 National Merit Scholarship Program. These students represent less than 1% of high school seniors in the United States. The Parkway students are:

Central High
Daniel Baris
George Harris
Cynthia Hu
Sarah Joseph
Rohit Krishnamurthy
Jeremy Li
Neel Nayak
Samuel Opinsky
Olivia Qian
Inchara Shetty
Fareeha Siddique
Aditya Singh
Ayaan Umar

North High
Sanjana Panwar
Josie Rand

South High
Riley Darrough
Louisa Lehmann
Kevin Potthast

West High
Brinda Ambal
Grace Dong
Jackson Gillespie
Connor Gusky
Isaac Judy
Marissa Liu
Trisha Manna
Paige Matthys-Pearce
Miranoush Nalbandian
Shruti Panda
Noah Withers
Kevin Zheng

To become a finalist, students must submit a detailed scholarship application, in which they provide information about their academic record, participation in school and community activities, demonstrated leadership abilities, employment and honors and awards received. A finalist 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.

In the fall, approximately 16,000 students nationwide were selected as semifinalists, and 90 percent go on to become finalists. These academically talented high school seniors have an opportunity to continue in the competition for 7,500 National Merit Scholarships, worth more than $30 million.