Thirty-Three Students Named National Merit Scholarship Winners

By
FCPS News
May 13, 2020

Thirty-three students from eight Fairfax County high schools have been named winners of $2,500 scholarships from the National Merit Scholarship Corporation.  Scholarship winners are part of a group of approximately 2,500 National Merit finalists chosen to receive scholarships in 2020 primarily financed by the NMSC.  


Winners of the scholarships, with their probable career fields in parentheses, are: 

  • Gayatri Chintala (political science), Chantilly High School.
  • Yifan Chen (international development), Chantilly High School.
  • Jeffrey Pei (business), Langley High School.
  • Karina Wugang (law), Langley High School.
  • Katherine Helmicki (veterinary medicine), Madison High School.
  • Sophia Konde (undecided), Marshall High School.
  • Albert Ding (computer science), Oakton High School.
  • Pristina Koon (government service-intelligence), Robinson Secondary School.
  • Sabrina Cai (neuroscience), Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology (TJHSST).
  • Jessica Chen (international development), TJHSST.
  • Alex Chung (applied mathematics), TJHSST.
  • Aimee Feng (computer science), TJHSST.
  • Saketh Gabbita (computer science), TJHSST.
  • Shubham Goda (computer science), TJHSST.
  • Joshua Gong (computer science), TJHSST.
  • Victoria Graf (undecided), (TJHSST).
  • Sarah Gu (computer science), TJHSST.
  • Justin Han (medicine), TJHSST.
  • Brandon Kim (biomedical engineering), TJHSST.
  • Ann Li (computer science), TJHSST.
  • Jenny Li (computer science), TJHSST.
  • Jerry Li (computer science), TJHSST.
  • Rishabh Misra (computer science), TJHSST.
  • Philip Pan (finance), TJHSST.
  • Vaibhav Sharma (computer engineering), TJHSST.
  • Sylvia Tan (computer science), TJHSST.
  • Jialin Tso (computer science), TJHSST.
  • Emily Wang (computer science), TJHSST.
  • Shannon Xiao (computer science), TJHSST.
  • William Xu (chemistry), TJHSST.
  • Mia Yang (biomedicine), TJHSST.
  • Richard Zhan (computer science), TJHSST.
  • Ishan Kalburge (academia), Woodson High School.

Each of the FCPS winners received a scholarship supported by the NMSC’s own funds. 


Each scholarship winner was evaluated on his or her academic record, including difficulty level of subjects studied and grades earned; scores from two standardized tests; contributions and leadership in school and community activities; a personal essay; and a recommendation from a high school official. The number of winners named in a state is in proportion to the state’s percentage of the national total of graduating high school seniors. Winners are chosen by the National Merit Scholarship Corporation, not the school district.
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