A total of 237 high school seniors in Louisiana, more than half from the New Orleans area, have been named National Merit semifinalists.
They are among 16,000 semifinalists named from across the nation out of the class of 2025. They are now in the running for about 6,870 National Merit scholarships worth nearly $26 million that will be offered in the spring.
The 237 Louisiana semifinalists, who were announced this week, are the students who scored the highest in the state during the 2023 administration of the PSAT, a preliminary test to the well-known SAT college placement exam. That is up from last year when Louisiana had 199 National Merit semifinalists.
Of these semifinalists, 144 are from the New Orleans metro area, 49 are from the Baton Rouge area, and nine are from Acadiana. The Houma-Thibodaux-Morgan City area has one semifinalist, and Lake Charles has two.
Thirty-two are from north Louisiana, 17 of them from Shreveport.
Jesuit High in New Orleans has 27 semifinalists, the most of any school in the state, followed by Baton Rouge Magnet High with 19 semifinalists.
For the New Orleans area, other schools with many semifinalists are Haynes Academy For Advanced Studies in Metairie with 16, Ben Franklin High with 14, Isidore Newman School with 14, and Patrick F. Taylor Science And Technology Academy with 11.
For the Baton Rouge area, Catholic High has 10 semifinalists, while Episcopal High has six.
In the Acadiana area, Early College Academy and Episcopal School Of Acadiana are tied with two semifinalists each.
Fourteen high schools across Louisiana had at least five semifinalists. Caddo Magnet in Shreveport, with 12, and Louisiana School for Math, Science and The Arts in Natchitoches, with five, are the only north Louisiana schools in that group.
Here the semifinalists by region and by school:
ACADIANA
Acadiana Renaissance Charter Academy in Youngsville: Caiden T. Duhon.
David Thibodaux STEM Magnet Academy in Lafayette: Joseph C. Boulanger.
Early College Academy in Lafayette: Marian Akinsoji, Seth Wall.
Episcopal School Of Acadiana in Broussard: Perry Joseph, Grace Pellegrin.
John Paul The Great Academy in Lafayette: Joseph Richard.
Lafayette High: Cade L. Deroche.
St. Thomas More Catholic High: John David McCrory.
BATON ROUGE
Ascension Christian High in Gonzales: Charlotte E. Henagan.
Albany High: Michael Kober.
Baton Rouge Magnet High: Nicole Baumgartner; Thuy Bui; Keya Chanda-Rastogi; Owen Dong; Ryan Feng; Varun Gala; Leyna Huynh; Royan Joshi; Frances Kantrow; Eva Lockridge; Sofia Lockridge; Benjamin Namikas; Abhinav Pathak; Emily Phan; Sebastian Schoegl; Kaitlyn Smith, Tejasvi Tyagi; Ryan Wilson; Spencer Yan.
Catholic High in Baton Rouge: Elliott Eagleton; Joseph Huynh; Caldwell Kerth; Ayden Leonardt; Thomas Miller; Ethan Noel; Noah Olson; Cesar Rico; Hayes Turner; Michael Wilhelm Jr.
Central High: Casey Leblanc, Quentin Wright.
Dutchtown High in Geismar: Benjamin P. Hidalgo; Mei L. Satler; Jacob J. Weber.
The Dunham School in Baton Rouge: George Harrod.
Episcopal High in Baton Rouge: Benjamin Barney; Beau Legnon; Miniya Malone; Amelia Moore; Addison Reynolds; Luke Stelly.
Homeschool/Online School: Josiah K. Pyles of Ethel.
Live Oak High in Watson: Zachary McMenis.
St. Joseph's Academy in Baton Rouge: Mia Barfield and Audrey Elliott.
Silliman Institute in Clinton: Denny W. Qiu.
Walker High: River W. Barnett.
LAKE CHARLES
Alfred M. Barbe High in Lake Charles: Micah Rickert.
Sulphur High: Ethan A. Harger.
NEW ORLEANS
Academy Of The Sacred Heart in New Orleans: Katherine Alford; Lindsay Kane; Carolina Khatib; Rosalie Thomas.
Archbishop Hannan High in Covington: Mason Cantrelle; Daniel King; Addison Lee.
Archbishop Rummel High in Metairie: Bryan A. Dardar; Evan C. Guidry; William W. Salvaggio.
Belle Chasse High: Ian C. Ballow.
Ben Franklin High in New Orleans: Rebecca L. Albano; Mason M. Avery; William J. Lieder; Xindi Liu; Audrey G. Orzech; Allen J. Powell; Annika C. Roberson; Sofia E. Roberts; Elio L. Sharp; Akshita Sridhar; Reva N. Sus; Richard R. Waddington; Thomas H. Wilson; Ana S. Zervigon.
Brother Martin High in New Orleans: Liam F. Enger.
Christ Episcopal School in Covington: Ryder D. Clark.
Fontainebleau High in Mandeville: Octavia Combellas-Jaimes; Addison Mahony; David Zhong.
Hahnville High: Braden Genius.
Haynes Academy For Advanced Studies in Metairie: Lena Abedali; Ian Anderson; Anurup Bhakta; Nicholas Chen; Bhavvya Singh Devra; Margo Esquivel; Timothy Kim, Vaishnavi Kumbala; Angelia Ma; Caitlin Martin; Hudson Mobley; Hannah Poynter; Ashrith Pushpagiri; Juan Rodriguez-Santos; Jayla St. Cyr-Thompson; Evan Waelde.
Holy Cross School in New Orleans: Jack Armstrong, Ethan Turner.
Isidore Newman School in New Orleans: Audrey Bagot; Sachin Dasa; Catherine Fitzpatrick; Eli Friend; Gwendolyn Gray; Aria Jolly; Jake Lonseth; Hudson Nguyen; Martin Rezza; Paul Richard; Edwin Salisbury; Amar Walia; Harrison Westerfield; Lucyna Wojcik.
Jesuit High in New Orleans: Lenox Bacerra; Zachary Becker; Andrew Cavallino; Leo Congeni; Peter Connolly; Alex Darcey; William Degenhart Jr.; Andrew Duncan; Salvatore Esola; Travis Fish; Nathan Flynn; Scott Harper; Carter Jennings; Klein Konrad; Jude LaCour; Jackson Lago; Ethan Lapeze; Joseph Pourciau; Aadil Rab; Jack Reiss; Samuel Schlafer; John Schoenbrun; Jackson Sober; Vaughn Taylor; Christian Thomas; Aidan Wang; Grayson Wise.
Lakeshore High in Mandeville: Peyton Lerille.
Mandeville High: Lindsey N. Daigre; Isabelle C. Haley; Olivia A. Rogge; Elijah F. Wirtz.
Metairie Park Country Day School: Henry Breen; Constance Goldenberg; Clovis Layrisson; Christian Myers; Arash Parsi.
Mount Carmel Academy in New Orleans: Ella Desormeaux; Kylie Diaz; Sofia Giarrusso; Sophia Hattier; Marguerite Hopkins; Katie McGovern; Helen Morlier; Catalina Reichard; Casey Swanson.
Northshore High in Slidell: Andrew J. Rodriguez, Rocky M. Valencia.
Patrick F. Taylor Science And Technology Academy in Avondale: Dylan Benoit; Andrew Bryson; Cole Hiep Bui; Alissa Delatte-Noel; Riley Doherty; Tyler Hill; Evan Kellogg; Christina Le; Henry Lewandowski; Keith Thibodaux; Quang Tran.
Ponchatoula High: Ezar Smedley.
St. Mary's Dominican High in New Orleans: Livy M. Eastman; Harper S. Griffin; Grace A. Mandella; Emma G. Nguyen.
St. Martin’s Episcopal School in Metairie: Boyu Hua.
St. Paul's School in Covington: Perrin Duhe; Lathan Harrell; Landon Krebs; Sean Lenahan; Owen Paddock; Jackson Picone.
St. Scholastica Academy in Covington: Colette Bergeron.
Slidell High: Camden J. Pichon.
The Willow School (formerly Lusher Charter School): John T. Cajski; Robert B. Carroll; Marigny K. Gill; Cypress C. Hodgson; Larissa L. Huilgol; Mia I. Montelibano; Conor A. Moore; Chloe A. Polin.
SHREVEPORT
Airline High in Bossier City: Georgia S. Price.
C.E. Byrd High in Shreveport: Nicholas Carr.
Caddo Magnet High in Shreveport: Parker Alleman; Sophie Calloway; Kyung Hyun Cho; Arjun Desai; Weihao Lin; Ridley Morgan; Logan Pierce; Sahej Sachdeva; Aashni Shah; Elizabeth Shoup; Noel Strange; Alexander Willett.
Loyola College Preparatory School in Shreveport: Mark G. Henry, George F. Olsan.
Captain Shreve High in Shreveport: Omar L. Benites.
OTHER
Buckeye High: Mandy D. Belgard.
Cedar Creek School in Ruston: Luke A. Waldron.
Edward D. White Catholic High in Thibodaux: Andrew Terrebonne.
Louisiana School for Math, Science and The Arts in Natchitoches: Wyatt A. Barras; Chad C. Johnson; Collin E. McNeely; Madeline J. Riles; Isaac D. Young.
Neville High in Monroe: Elias Cross and Noha Moqer.
Ruston High: John Serio; Carter Tims; Anhaar Wasi; Lydia Watts.
West Monroe High: Anderson Dixon and Katie Namkung.