Wayzata High School recognized 32 students named semifinalists in the 2025 National Merit Scholarship Program at the Wayzata Public Schools board meeting on Oct. 13.

Amy Swanson, the district’s gifted and talent coordinator, read the semifinalist list and presented the staff members identified by the students as their “esteemed teachers.” Swanson said the 32 semifinalists are part of the national pool of about 16,000 semifinalists and that Minnesota had roughly 288 semifinalists this year, figures she cited from the National Merit program announcement. Semifinalists will have an opportunity to continue in competition for about 7,500 National Merit scholarships that will be awarded next spring, Swanson said.

The board acknowledged the students and the many staff members nominated by semifinalists. The student names presented by Swanson included Mohan Atkuri, Rahul Bilicanti, Noah Carpenter, Felix Chung, James Iris, Jasper Fung, Dylan Kim, Snigda Kotharetti, Sneha Kundu, Daniel Kwan, Angela Liang, Sophie Litwak, Andres Lopez Gonzalez, Akshat Mahesh, Ria Mehta, Aditya Nair, Chu Park, Kevin Q, Sanjeev Ratnam, Pranav Salapaka, Chloe Sergeant, Tavisha Talwar, Tanush Timasani, Selena Wong, Warren Wang, Louie Wojak, Luyu Yang, Rachel Yin, Yuklom Zhang, Aaron Zuo and others (full list read aloud by the district).

Swanson also read the lists of K–8 and 9–12 staff nominated by students; the K–8 list included Rachel Anderson, Chip Broford, Kim Dunford and others, and the 9–12 list included Lauren Campbell Klett, Mick Cipra, Cody DeBoer, Dan Dobson and other staff members as read at the meeting.

Why it matters: National Merit recognition is an academic honor that can lead to scholarship opportunities and public recognition for students and teachers; the district used the meeting to publicly acknowledge students and the staff they credited.

Next steps: Swanson and the district will preserve the semifinalists’ names and the staff recognitions in district records; semifinalists will proceed in the National Merit evaluation process per the program’s timeline.