9 South Windsor Students Named National Merit Semifinalists

SOUTH WINDSOR, CT — Nine South Windsor High School seniors have been named semifinalists in the 2027 National Merit Scholarship Program.

The students are:

• Shreyansh Banerjee
• Thomas Melia
• Zachary Perkins
• Sanjay Rajan
• Shruti Shah
• Akhil Shunmugaraja
• Harshiv Sohagiya
• Karthik Srikumar
• Andrew Zhang

More than 16,000 high school seniors nationwide were selected as semifinalists, according to the National Merit Scholarship Corporation. They will compete for about 6,700 scholarships worth a combined $24 million.

The semifinalists represent less than 1 percent of high school seniors nationwide. They qualified through their performance on the 2025 Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test.

To advance, students must submit an application detailing their academic record, school and community involvement, leadership experience, employment and awards. They must also receive a recommendation from a school official, write an essay and earn an SAT or ACT score that confirms their earlier performance.

More than 15,000 semifinalists are expected to reach the finalist stage. They will be notified in February, with scholarship winners announced between April and July 2027.