Record share of Oregon’s top-tier $2,500 National Merit Scholarship winners hail from outside Portland area

Twenty-eight Oregon high school seniors from 23 high schools have won $2,500 National Merit Scholarships, signaling they are among the nation’s most elite scholars.

More than a third of them live outside the Portland metro area, in places like Creswell, Salem and Albany, a new phenomenon for Oregon.

Also unlike in recent years, in which schools such as Beaverton’s Westview and Sunset highs proved to be dominant powerhouses, no high school in Oregon boasts more than two top winners this year.

Winners of the $2,500 scholarships are judged the best of the best among National Merit Scholars, with what the scholarship organization says are the strongest combination of accomplishments, skills and potential for success in college. Panels of high school counselors and college admission officers selected them based on grades, difficulty of courses taken, standardized test scores, an essay and recommendations from a teacher and their high school.

Here are this year’s winning students, listed alphabetically by high school:

Abiqua Academy in Salem

Melissa Williams

Williams will enroll at the University of Washington’s college of engineering in Seattle, where she plans to dabble in different engineering disciplines until she discovers which suits her best, mom Amy Williams said. Williams plays piano and guitar and fosters kittens each summer for Salem Friends of Felines. She is also a digital artist and last year won the Mayor’s Award for a cinema poster she submitted to the Salem Art Association’s young artists’ showcase.

Ashland High

Violet Hering

Hering plans to attend the University of California, Berkeley and will study molecular and cell biology while she explores the possibility of studying medicine long-term.

Hering played violin in her high school orchestra and the fiddle for local Ashland group Creekside Strings. She is co-president of her school’s Rotary Interact Club and also the co-captain of the cross country team, where she ran varsity all four years. She works as a lifeguard and swim instructor, as a student manager of her school’s tutoring center and also as a counselor at Creekside String’s summer fiddle camps.

“Watch out for Violet,” Ashland High teacher Peter Bolling was quoted as saying in a Rotary Club news release. “She well represents Alexander the Great’s quote, ‘I will either find a way, or I will make one.’”

Beaverton High

Suhani Koppolu

Koppolu is an artist and an aspiring doctor headed to Rice University to study neuroscience. She has volunteered with Portland YouthLine, a teen-to-teen support line for youth in crisis, since her freshman year, and the mental health work prompted her interest in how the brain functions. “I really love it,” Koppolu said of her volunteering with YouthLine. “I feel like it’s one of my favorite things I do because I feel like I’m making a difference.” In addition to Advanced Placement classes, Koppolu studies art, founded a mural club at Beaverton High and advocates for environmental causes.

Bend High

Alex Laakmann

Laakmann is a skier, climber, whitewater rafter and nature photographer. In addition to taking International Baccalaureate classes, Laakmann started a rock climbing club to climb with friends every Wednesday. He plans to attend Middlebury College in Vermont after a gap semester during which he will complete National Outdoor Leadership School. He’s also completing his wilderness first-aid certification and hopes to be a raft guide during summer breaks.

Catlin Gabel

Lucas Holliday

Holliday will attend Northwestern University to study computer science. Holliday played on his school’s varsity soccer team, which won a state championship in 2021, and varsity tennis team, which took home the state championship in 2022.

Holliday volunteered on the Cascadia Wild Camera Crew, which documents wildlife on Mt. Hood, and was a camp counselor and student director for Catlin Gabel summer camps. Holliday was also on the Catlin Gabel robotics team that designed ZipBag, an assistive technology to help people with limited dexterity open, close and fill resealable bags. The project won the 2021 Congressional App Challenge in Oregon’s 3rd District.

Clackamas Web Academy

Muyang Yan

Yan graduated early from Clackamas Web Academy charter school and is currently attending Purdue University, according to a video the school created to celebrate his National Merit Scholarship win. Yan had a perfect 4.0 grade point average in his three years at the North Clackamas high school, the video said, and earned 88 college credits through the school’s partnership with the local community college.

According to his LinkedIn page, Yan also organized and taught a four-day coding and robotics summer camp through the Happy Valley Library and has been a part of his university’s student-led robotics team Purdue RoboMasters.

Cleveland High

Benjamin Stevenson

Stevenson is on his way to Dartmouth College, where he plans to study public policy and energy justice. He’s one of the leaders of Sunrise Movement PDX, a student-led climate justice movement, which has advocated for the decarbonization of transit and clean energy sources. Stevenson said he’s seen his advocacy translated into action, as in with the passage of Portland Public Schools’ climate crisis response policy.

He captained Cleveland’s decorated speech and debate team, which won two state championships in a row. Stevenson competed in parliamentary debate and oratory.

Crescent Valley High

Nicole Huang

Huang is a multi-sport athlete who played varsity level soccer, basketball, tennis and track. Huang was named to the 5A girls all-state soccer team and was an honorable mention for the 5A all-state basketball team and she says the lessons she learned through sports have helped shape the person she’s become.

Her proudest accomplishments in high school include making connections with classmates through an affinity group for students of color called Students Advocating for Equity and a mental health and suicide prevention program, Sources of Strength.

Huang plans to attend the University of Washington to study engineering.

Creswell High

Jordynn Risdal

Risdal has been an active member of high school clubs and a group called Hope Restored, a project started through the Creswell Church of Christ, in which community volunteers refurbish homes of families in need. This year, Risdal is leading part of those efforts as the group renovates the high school greenhouse into a usable classroom space where students can learn about agriculture.

Risdal is also a member of the school’s People for Equality and Change Everywhere (PEACE) club and in her sophomore year petitioned the school to include more diverse viewpoints in curriculum after learning that students from underrepresented backgrounds feel increased belonging in school when they learn about people who share their lived experiences. In the past few years, Risdal said, she’s seen books and essay choices grow more diverse. “It felt really good to be part of an improvement and not just be silent,” Risdal said.

She plans to study biology at the University of Oregon and pursue a career in scientific research.

Franklin High

Luke “Lucy” Ramsey

Ramsey excelled during three years as a writer and editor at their school’s Franklin Post newspaper, where they were able to cover issues they cared about, including teen workers in the fast food industry and the harm that comes from body shaming, and made some of their closest friends.

Ramsey also worked as part of the Sunrise Movement, a youth effort to push for climate justice initiatives. Ramsey said highlights were seeking endorsements and writing testimony to support a measure that would gradually phase out Portland’s fossil fuel use. Ramsey also served on Franklin’s Constitutional Law team.

Elizabeth Kirsch, an English teacher who advises the Franklin Post, wrote that Ramsey “is among the most discerning and insightful students I have ever had. They are an incredible journalist, scholar and community member. At a time when there is so much darkness and inequity surrounding us, Luke gives me hope for our future. They exemplify intellect, vulnerability and advocacy.”

Ramey plans to attend Carleton College and study social sciences.

Grant High

Dylan Jacobs

Jacobs, who hopes to become an aerospace engineer, is headed to Swarthmore College to study mechanical and electrical engineering. At Grant, he was the founder of the Common Ground Club, which he describes as “a discussion group dedicated to fostering discourse about potentially controversial topics in a safe, neutral space.” He was also a member of the school’s decorated Constitution Team, which placed first in the state and second in the national competition.

Jacobs is also an entrepreneur. Two years ago, distressed by learning that a local grocery store was guarding its dumpster to prevent houseless people from accessing expired food, he created a smartphone app called FireSale to address both food waste and food insecurity. The app, which is available via Google Play, lets food retailers advertise their excess food at a marked down price.

Jesuit High

Vladimir Mamchik

Mamchick’s research was selected by the American Academy of Optometry’ as its “Top Ten Studies of the Year” by high school students for two years in a row, making him the only student so honored.

He twice represented Oregon at the Regeneron International Science and Engineering Fair, winning the 3rd Place Grand Award in 2021 and the 2nd Place Grand Award in 2022. He was named one of 300 Regeneron Science Talent Search Scholars among high schoolers worldwide in 2023.

Mamchck is headed to Stanford University to study human biology with a focus on neuroscience.

Victor Li

Li’s accomplishments include playing varsity tennis, serving as the captain of Jesuit’s Ethics Bowl team, winning mathematics competitions, earning the title of salutatorian, serving on the Mayor’s Youth Advisory Board, and twice winning a gold-level presidential volunteer service award.

He is headed to the University of Notre Dame to study business.

Lake Oswego High

Alicia Li

Li is headed to Northwestern University this fall, where she plans to study Learning Sciences, a program that mixes STEM/technology with education. She’s considering a double major in Computer Science. When she looks back on her high school career, Li said, she’ll remember being one of the founders of her high school’s Asian American Student Union, which began in 2020 as a response to rising anti-Asian sentiments in the U.S. at the start of the pandemic. The club now boasts over a hundred members and sponsors a well-attended, community-wide Asian Cultural Festival.

Li is also a Taekwondo instructor, competitor, and demonstration team member for World Champion Taekwondo, a local martial arts school. She represented students on the Lake Oswego school board from 2021-2022 and hosted a winter Read-a-Thon for the entire district that raised over $18,000 for the Lake Oswego public library and the Start Making a Reader Today program, which donates books to kids in need.

Lincoln High

Alyssia Menezes

Menezes founded a mental health outreach program through which she led a team of teens who made presentations about feelings and mental well-being at dozens of Portland-area elementary and middle schools.

She served as president of Lincoln’s speech and debate team for two years and competed on the national level. She was named one of the top 50 speech and debate achievers nationwide.

As a leader of the Stumptown Speaker Series, a free speaker event for Portland-area high school students featuring prominent business leaders, Menezes recruited and interviewed potential speakers, leaning on Lincoln’s alumni network and also cold-calling local entrepreneurs. Speakers she secured included an Intel president, the Dutch Bros CEO and the founders of Vacasa, Ridwell, ZoomCare and Salt & Straw.

She also captained Lincoln’s varsity golf team and was chosen to serve as the Rose Festival princess representing Lincoln.

She is headed to the University of Texas at Austin to study in the Canfield Business Honors Program.

Phoebe Yang

Yang excels at math and qualified for both the American Invitational Examination for Mathematics and the Math Prize for Girls as a sophomore. She captained Lincoln’s varsity cheer squad her junior and senior years.

Yang will attend the United States Military Academy at West Point.

Mountainside High, Beaverton

Daniel Hadi

Hadi is a lover of language, an interest sparked in elementary school when he first discovered a “very long book,” the Oxford English Dictionary. “It’s been really influential in me understanding the world around me, the myths and folktales and prejudices that inform the words I speak every day,” Hadi said.

He speaks English and is learning Spanish and Arabic, the latter of which he studied in Morocco last summer through the U.S. Department of State’s National Security Language Initiative for Youth. Hadi has also served as a youth ambassador to the United Nations and co-founded Club Hope at his high school to help support students experiencing homelessness. Hadi will attend Stanford University in the fall and hopes to work in international development or international business.

South Eugene High

Jason Chinitz-Mital

Chinitz-Mital was the co-captain of South Eugene High School’s Ultimate frisbee team, which won the 2023 Oregon state championship and is fourth-ranked in the country, Chinitz-Mital said. He previously captained a debate team at his high school and founded a debate team in middle school.

Chinitz-Mital was part of a summer apprenticeship program at the Department of Wood Science and Engineering at Oregon State University and completed research on how cross-laminated wood products fare under fire, which was presented at an international conference. He plans to study mechanical engineering at Princeton University after a possible gap year.

Bella Wilde

Wilde plans to attend Occidental College, where she will play water polo, a sport that’s shaped her high school years and, Wilde says, helped shape her personality. Water polo requires athletes to be strong and powerful and aggressive, she said, and gave her permission to “step into my power instead of feeling like I needed to be small.”

“Having an environment where you’re empowered to take up space and to be aggressive is important for all aspects of your life because it allows you to be assertive and just feel more confident in every aspect of your life because you’re encouraged to be so confident in your sport,” she said.

Wilde was the captain of the South Eugene water polo and swim teams this year. She has also volunteered for the Four Rivers 4-H Camps in Salem and works with youth at her local pools.

Sunset High

Hana Sadik

Sadik is a nationally recognized fencer who won a bronze medal at USA Fencing’s 2021 Summer Nationals Tournament. She will attend the University of Oregon and major in political science. Outside of the classroom, she competes in speech and debate and has also volunteered with various local mosques. Sadik was a youth reporter for the Scholastic Kids Press and published stories on everything from earthquake preparedness to youth homelessness.

Jason Fu

Fu is an accomplished scholar, but one of his greatest accomplishments is beating his dad in badminton. Outside of school, Fu likes to play frisbee golf and card games with his friends. He plans to study computer science at Cornell University this fall. Fu won an award from the Oregon Chinese Coalition in 2020 for his service to others during COVID-19. Fu, concerned about the quality of education students were receiving during the pandemic, began teaching classes in Japanese, Python programming and English Language Arts through student led education platform YouthLink and volunteered at his local library.

Newberg High

Palmer Thompson

Thompson participated in athletics every semester he attended Newberg High. He played basketball and golf all four years, soccer for three and ran cross country his senior year. Thompson is a percussionist in the high school band and plays in a jazz group outside of school called the Green Carpet Express. He founded a chess club at Newberg High, inspired by the Netflix show the Queen’s Gambit, and is also co-chair of the school’s gender sexuality alliance.

One of his proudest accomplishments is taking differential equations with linear algebra at George Fox during his sophomore year. He participated in a group that modeled the decay of oil after the Deep Water Horizon spill, which won an award. Thompson plans to study mathematics at the University of Texas at Dallas.

Oregon Episcopal School

Ethan Tieu

Tieu is a varsity tennis player who competed in the state tennis championships his junior and senior years, helping his team place second and third. He volunteers each week at St. John’s Racquet Center at the Portland Tennis and Education program and teaches lessons to underprivileged students. He loves to play video games. Tieu plans to attend the University of Washington to study computer engineering.

South Salem High

Henry Amato

Amato is an International Thespian and an International Baccalaureate student who plans to study game design at New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts. In addition to being heavily involved with South Salem’s theater program, Amato also competes on the school’s robotics team, which has taken part in the state competition all three years it has been active. Amato dances with a local dance studio and in free time likes to hike, play jazz piano and play video games with friends.

West Albany High

Caroline Gao

Gao founded and co-directs The World in Us, a nonprofit that introduces elementary students and teens to world cultures, both in person and online. The program, which introduces young people to cultures including those of China, Italy, France, India, Great Britain and Lebanon, aims to help build global citizens, Gao said.

She was motivated to found the initiative during the pandemic’s onset in summer 2020 in large part due to many difficult encounters she had as a young U.S. born Chinese American growing up in overwhelmingly white Albany, where her parents moved for work when she was a toddler.

She also founded an international English language youth literacy magazine. Writers from about 30 countries, many writing in English as their second or third language, have contributed, Gao said.

She has been very involved in Oregon’s youth mock Legislature program and last year served as the program’s youth governor, a role she said allowed her to give back to the program. “Being surrounded by a bunch of civically engaged kids” taught her more than any course in government or civics could, she said.

She was selected as one of Oregon’s two Presidential Scholars in the class of 2023.

She is headed to Harvard University, where she plans to study government and perhaps minor in East Asian studies or economics.

West Linn High

Anish Goswami

Goswami was among five West Linn-Wilsonville High School students who traveled to Atlanta last year to compete in the Regeneron International Science and Engineering Fair, the world’s largest global science competition for high school students. He returned with an award from the Missouri University of Science and Technology for his project on autonomous disaster assessment using machine learning. Goswami was the valedictorian at West Linn-Wilsonville and a member of West Linn robotics team Error Code Xero. He plans to study computer science at the University of California, Los Angeles.

Westview High

Elise Fan

An educator who nominated Fan for the 2023 Youth Achievement award from the Beaverton Chamber of Commerce described the high schooler as one of the most compassionate and empathetic students they had taught in nearly 20 years. Fan helps take care of her grandmother, the award entry said, and has volunteered to help tutor fellow students.

She is also the captain of a Beaverton robotics team and volunteers to mentor middle school students who attend a manufacturing-focused summer camp. Fan plans to attend the University of California, Berkeley to study mechanical engineering.

Rishab Jain

Jain has won international awards for his advanced medical research on topics including rapid production of vaccines and his latest specialty, using artificial intelligence to help surgeons more expertly defeat glioblastoma multiforme, the most deadly brain cancer. Labs at Oregon Health & Science University and MIT have leaned on Jain for help making medical advances. He said he feels grateful to be a researcher in an era of precision medicine.

A White House panel chose him as one of Oregon’s two Presidential Scholars.

Unsurprisingly, Harvard University admitted him as one of its fall “early decision” members of its class of 2027.

At Westview, he competed on the school speech and debate team all four years, specializing in impromptu speaking and radio commentary. He also was a member of the school Science Bowl team. And he competed in track and field for three years. He created a nonprofit that helps promote science and math instruction and has provided customized curricula to high-need schools, including one in South Africa.

He was a Boy Scout and reached the rank of Eagle Scout, which he said had a huge impact on his life. His capstone project was creating a pollinator habitat in Beaverton.

At Harvard, he “100% plans to continue” medical research at one or more of the several Harvard-affiliated research hospitals in the Boston area as well as completing his undergraduate degree in computational neuroscience. He aims to go on to earn a degree in medicine as well as a Ph.D.

— Sami Edge; sedge@oregonian.com

— Julia Silverma; jsilverman@oregonian.com

— Betsy Hammond; betsyhammond@oregonian.com