Photo courtesy of Vestavia Hills City Schools
The 24 National Merit semifinalists from Vestavia Hills High School in 2025 are, front row from left, Mina Hu, Lucy Manary, Lily Xie, Judy Yamani, Mariam Malik, Vivian Shi, Ayden Yother, Evelyn Kutny, Zara McKelvey, Tina Lou and Tina Gao. On the back row, from left, are Syed Andrabi, Lance Wilkerson, Vaughan Milliman, John Wimberly, Ryaan Singh, Aditya Sheelavant, Eric Wang, Daniel McMurray, Jaymin Bae, Cooper Prier, Jack Hugunine, Pratul Danasekar and Jeffrey Zhao.
Two dozen Vestavia Hills High School seniors have been named 2025 National Merit semifinalists — the largest group from any Alabama high school this year and the school’s biggest showing in nearly two decades.
This year’s 24 students mark the largest group from VHHS since 2006, when the school also had 24 semifinalists. It is the third time this decade that VHHS has produced more than 20 semifinalists in a single year.
Students qualified for the honor by earning top scores on the Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test in 2024. As semifinalists, they will compete for about $26 million in scholarships to be awarded this coming spring.
“It is an honor to congratulate this year’s National Merit semifinalists for the way they’ve approached learning — with consistency, curiosity and perseverance,” Vestavia Hills High School Principal Blair Inabinet said in a news release. “Their journey reflects our core values of respect, excellence and service, reminding us that success grows out of daily choices and steady effort. This recognition is a milestone, but even more, it is proof of the power of process and dedication.”
The 2025 semfinalists from Vestavia Hills High School are:
- Syed Andrabi
- Jaymin Bae
- Pratul Danasekar
- Tina Gao
- Mina Hu
- Jack Hugunine
- Evelyn Kutny
- Tina Lou
- Mariam Malik
- Lucy Manary
- Zara McKelvey
- Daniel McMurray
- Vaughan Milliman
- Cooper Prier
- Aditya Sheelavant
- Vivian Shi
- Ryaan Singh
- Eric Wang
- Lance Wilkerson
- John Wimberly
- Lily Xie
- Judy Yamani
- Ayden Yother
- Jeffrey Zhao
