A number of local students were among 30 from across Fairfax County’s public schools to receive the latest round of National Merit Scholarships.
They were among a group of approximately 2,500 students nationally who will receive funding directly from the National Merit Scholarship Corp.
Students from the Sun Gazette coverage area, and their expected career paths in parentheses, include):
• From Thomas Jefferson High School for Science & Technology: Ryan Angle (computer science, Akash Pamal (computer science), Aarav Khanna (computer science), Aarav Bajal (computer science), Anirudh Bansal (computer science), Justine Chu (medical research), Anwitha Kollipara (computer science), Harrish Ganesh (medicine), Jasjeet Sandhu (politics), Melissa Wu (economics), Justin Chen (business), Alyssa Gorbaneva (computer science), Leon Jia (computer science), Valerie Li (computer science), Isaac Lin (computer science), Megan Yu (computer science), Hasita Nalluri (medicine), Pulak Dugar (computer science), Garrett Heller (physics).
• From McLean High School: Joyce Qi (materials engineering), Cathy Zhang (law), Jack Hunter Deutsch (economics), Songhan Pang (medicine), Cynthia Ma (undecided).
• From Langley High School: William Wallace-Gomez Orr (writing), Erika Li (biology), Anjara Rajesh (neuroscience) and Charles Tatum (engineering).
In addition, Sophie Pellnitz, a graduating senior at BASIS Independent McLean, has received a $2,500 scholarship from the National Merit Scholarship Corp.
Pellnitz currently is in the midst of her senior project at the school, studying the psychology of wealth and national attitudes toward higher taxation on the most wealthy in the nation.