Thirteen students representing four Deer Valley Unified School District high schools are National Merit Scholarship semifinalists for 2025.

The group is among approximately 16,000 semifinalists. These students will be considered for 6,870 National Merit Scholarships worth nearly $26 million to be awarded this spring.

The students are:

Barry Goldwater High School

• Kavi Badhwar

Boulder Creek High School

• Benjamin Heiner

Mountain Ridge High School

• Mahia Bhatt
• Pravneet Chadha
• Anjali Chokshi
• Will Dana
• Dyuthi Heroor
• Erik Potts
• Kyle Prentice
• Kaushik Venkatesh
• David Xu

Sandra Day O’Connor High School

• Lilah Manfredi
• Lennon Hammond

Over a million high school juniors were considered for the 71st National Merit Scholarship Program through their performance on the 2024 Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying test, a press release explains.

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

A semifinalist must have an outstanding academic record throughout high school, be endorsed and recommended by a high school official, write an essay, and earn SAT scores that confirm the student’s earlier performance on the qualifying test.

Merit Scholar designees are selected on the basis of their skills, accomplishments, and potential for success in college studies, without regard to gender, race, ethnic origin, or religious preference.

National Merit Scholarship winners of 2025 will be announced beginning in April and concluding in July.

Visit www.nationalmerit.org.