Vandegrift has 69 senior students who were awarded by the National Merit Recognition program in three categories based on PSAT/NMSQT results from last school year. The annual National Merit Scholarship Program is in its 63rd year.

Vandegrift has 17 students who qualified as National Merit Semifinalists, representing less than 1 percent of U.S. high school seniors who scored a 221 or higher on their 2016 PSAT. These academically talented high school seniors have an opportunity to continue in the competition for some 7,500 National Merit Scholarships worth more than $32 million that will be offered this spring.

VHS National Merit Semifinalists:

Alex Fontani Herreros
Anya Chintapalli
Ashwin Kalidas
Caroline Risner
Evan Welliver
Hannah Curley
Kendall Cuddy
Megan Varghese
Nikita Agarwal
Rayhan Jhanji
Samiksha Mulpuri
Shruthi Balasubramanian
Sonesh Patel
Victor Lai
Viswanath Kasireddy

Vyshali Gondi
William Fisher

Vandegrift also has 38 senior students who qualified as National Merit Commended Scholars, which are students who placed among the top 5 percent of more than 1.6 million students for more than 22,000 high schools who entered the National Merit competition by taking the PSAT in the fall of their junior year.

VHS Commended Scholars:

Adam Busch
Adeline Carter
Adriana Cordova
Andrew Pickard
Anna Fletcher
Anup Guggari
Ashton Gurrola
Benson Drablos
Carson Broe
Chris Conner
Cierra Yudell
Dominique Mobley
Elizabeth Rice
Garrett Moore
Georgia Holmes
Gri n Shimkus
Isabel Moring
Jaebaek Lee
James Hofstadler
Justin Moore
Kabir Chadha
Kalei Lucas-Marinelli
Kartik Akkihal
Kendall Shields
Lawrence Johnson
Madison Poljan
Megan Whiting
Nathaniel Edelheit-Rice
Nick Rosas
Nicole Dow
Nicole Parmelee
Nolan Ward

Oso Ifesinachukwu
Paige Sadler
Philip Sarkis
Savanna Ullmann
Suhas Avirneni
Trent Gamel

VHS also celebrates its 2017 National Hispanic Scholars who were identified through the College Board’s National Hispanic Recognition Program. This program identifies academically outstanding Hispanic/Latino high school students on their PSAT performance. Each year, the program honors 5,000 of the highest-scoring students from over 250,000 Hispanic/Latino seniors who ranked among the highest on their junior year PSAT.

VHS National Hispanic Recognition Program:

Adriana Cordova
Alex Fontani Herreros
Ashton Gurrola
Audrey Elliott
Cecilia Reis
Cierra Yudell
Daniel Sacasa
Emily Perez
Ian Padovani
Isabel Moring
Katie Wokoek
Liam Monahan
Nick Rosas
Ryan Zermeno

Vandegrift PSAT team teachers Dana Raitt, Ashley Alexander, Carol Morris and Angie Harrelson helped students prepare for the tests.