Two seniors from Pleasanton have been selected to receive National Merit Scholarships sponsored by the institutions they will attend next year. Joshua Dai, a graduate of Foothill High School, and Jio Lee, an Amador Valley High School senior, were both awarded sponsorships from Harvey Mudd College.
These specific awards fall within a broader range of $500 to $2,000. They are distributed by various colleges and universities to finalists who have indicated plans to enroll at those schools in the upcoming academic year. This year, 138 institutions are providing more than 3,250 such awards.
The selection process for the National Merit program begins with the PSAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test. In September, more than 16,000 students were named semifinalists based on their scores. To advance to the finalist stage, these students were required to maintain strong academic records, receive endorsement from high school officials, and achieve SAT or ACT scores that confirmed their initial qualifying test performance.
In addition to the Harvey Mudd-sponsored awards, eight other Pleasanton-area students received scholarships sponsored by the National Merit Scholarship Corporation in May. The recipients include Yash Balaji and Nathaniel Hong from Amador Valley High School, Athithan Elamaran and Brandon Maximus Kong from Foothill High School, Hanyu Niu from Amador Valley, William Peng from Foothill, Siddhan Shah from Amador Valley, and Reese Zhou from Amador Valley.
Zhou resides in Dublin.
