Valencia boasts 12 National Merit Semifinalists, 37 Commended Students and seven Hispanic Scholars

Valencia High School Principal Hector Vasquez announced that 12 seniors – Michaela Artavia-High, Ashley Chen, Tera Gilham, Yvonne Ho, Nathalie Hong, Michael Huang, Naadir Jamal, Philip Lue, Harrisen Min, Benjamin Nguyen, Justin Oh and James Wang – were named Semifinalists in the 2017 National Merit Scholarship Program by earning qualifying scores on the October 2015 Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualify Test (PSAT/NMSQT). The National Merit Scholarship Corporation (NMSC) names 16,000 Semifinalists nationwide representing the top half percent of the 1.6 million program entrants. Representing less than one percent of each state’s high school seniors, National Merit Semifinalists are the highest-scoring program entrants in each state. Qualifying students have the opportunity to advance to the actual cash awards given as National Merit Scholarships by the universities they ultimately attend.

Thirty seven additional students earned qualifying scores for the 2017 National Merit Commended Student Program. Commended Students placed in the top five percent of the 1.6 million program entrants. Valencia’s 37 Commended Students are James Antonios, Francis Arellano, Christian Beck, Brayden Bishop, Lucas Booher, Lindsay Bracken, Brian Chen, Olivia Chung, Michelle Cornelius, Jacob Fisher, Brooke Fuller, Melinda Guo, Vivian Hayashi, Derek Hsi, Carl Ilg, Alice Kim, Geun Kim, Kyle Kim, Sonia Kim, Justin Kaleb Kua, Tyler Kwak, Mishika Manchanda, Alay Modi, Gavril Moniaga, Matthew Moon, Ariel Nadratowski, Dilan Patel, Parth Patel, Shaina Patel, Shivam Patel, Benjamin Rasic, Joshua Shook, Richard Smith, Amy Telarico, Dharaa Upadhyaya, Nathan Wu and Elizabeth Yin.

Additionally, seniors Michaela Artavia-High, Jacob Christensen, Sienna Chen, Christian Deville, Melissa Gonzalez, Bobby Hernandez and Chelsea Marasigan earned qualifying scores for the 2017 National Hispanic Recognition Program.

PYLUSD is very proud of these students and their achievements. The district is also proud of the teachers and staff, and the role they have played in the development of the outstanding academic programs at Valencia High School.