This fall, 53 seniors from Indian Prairie School District 204 — which includes Metea Valley, Neuqua Valley and Waubonsie Valley High Schools in Aurora and Naperville — were named National Merit Scholarship semifinalists, an honor that recognizes the top 1% of high school students nationwide for academic excellence.
Students named National Merit semifinalists
The students represent Metea Valley, Neuqua Valley and Waubonsie Valley High Schools. According to a district release, the students join about 16,000 semifinalists nationwide, representing less than 1% of all U.S. high school seniors.
These students were selected from a pool of 1.3 million juniors who took the PSAT/NMSQT in 2024. To become finalists, students must submit detailed applications that include their academic records, extracurricular involvement, leadership experience and an essay.
The National Merit Scholarship Program awards roughly 6,900 scholarships totaling about $26 million each spring. Awards include 2,500 National Merit $2,500 scholarships, 830 corporate-sponsored scholarships and about 3,600 college-sponsored scholarships.
District 204 Semifinalists:
Metea Valley High School
- Sreeya A. Ayyagari
- Amit Bagchi
- Rachel M. Chen
- Ryan W. Cotner
- Praneeth Doddi
- Lakshana Gopalakrishnan
- Samia Khan
- Ritika Khurana
- Shreyash R. Koli
- Claire A. Leung
- Claire E. Nang
- Srihan Pasupula
- Tiana Prem
- Eegan Ram
- Ibrahim M. Saadeh
- Viraj H. Vyas
- Lucy S. Yuan
Neuqua Valley High School
- Kundan S. Baliga
- Sarthak Behari
- Aditya Byju
- Peter L. Carroll
- Ananya Chatterjee
- Namrata Chintamaneni
- Kristin A. Glenn
- Arav Goswami
- Prameet Guha
- Steven He
- Alexander Huang
- Aditi Kaushal
- Siya Malhotra
- Maxwell P. Mayer
- Rhea P. Mhashilkar
- Niva Murali
- Varun Nagaraj
- Yule Park
- Om M. Patel
- Samil Sharma
- Vighnesh Subramanian
- Advaitha R. Taire
- Robert Yang
- Katherine Y. Yuan
- Jonathan W. Zhao
- Grace L. Zhuang
Waubonsie Valley High School
- Alice S. Ho
- Azim A. Kazmi
- Emily C. Park
- Salil Patki
- Ketavharsh R. Prem
- Vyshnavi B. Reddy
- Pranav Satapathy
- Amogh Shivanna
- Isabella Woolard
- Sahith Yarlagadda
No-cost therapy sessions for Aurora families
District 204 announced a partnership with the City of Aurora that will provide free after-school therapy sessions for district families who live within Aurora city limits. According to the district’s announcement, the initiative is designed to help students and families access confidential mental health care. Visit ipsd.org for program details.
Funded through a $10,000 grant from the City of Aurora, the program offers up to six 50-minute confidential sessions with independent, licensed therapists. Sessions will take place Tuesday evenings at 5, 6 and 7 p.m. from Nov. 4 through Dec. 16, 2025, at Granger Middle School, 2721 Stonebridge Blvd.
Therapy will be available for students and families coping with anxiety, grief, depression or other mental health challenges. All sessions will remain confidential between participants and therapists; no information will be shared with the school district.
Families can register at ReferralGPS.com.
New funding notice for after-school learning
Also in October, District 204 posted a public notice of intent to access Nita M. Lowey 21st Century Community Learning Centers funding from the Illinois State Board of Education for fiscal year 2026. According to the district’s notice, the funding would support programs at two qualifying schools.
If approved, the funding will support after-school programs at Georgetown and Longwood Elementary Schools — the two schools in the district that qualify under federal guidelines. The notice will remain posted for 45 days, as required by state regulations.
