Countywide : 17 in O.C. Win National Merit Scholarships

Orange County has 17 of California’s 87 National Merit Scholarship winners in the first round to be announced this year, the nonprofit National Merit Scholarship Corp. said Wednesday.

The scholarship organization, based in Evanston, Ill., said that 1,100 scholarships are being awarded nationwide in the first round. Two other rounds will be announced later. The first round of scholarships are funded by private companies and corporations.

The Orange County winners, their hometowns and their high schools are:

Joyce Lee, Anaheim, Canyon High School; Robert D. Horansky, Costa Mesa, Estancia High School; Hanh Huynh, Fullerton, Fullerton High School; Eric Carlson, Huntington Beach, Edison High School; Dylan Chan, Huntington Beach, Marina High School; Douglas Kawano, Huntington Beach, Fountain Valley High School; LeAnn Tchaikovsky, Huntington Beach, Marina High School; Anup Arora, Irvine, Irvine High School; and Michael Hu, Irvine, University High School.

Others are Tal Poznansky, Irvine, Irvine High School; Katherine Tsai, Irvine, University High School; Jalaja Puthuvalil, Laguna Hills, Laguna Hills High School; Michael Junge, Lake Forest, Trabuco Hills High School; Mike Zilliox, Los Alamitos, Los Alamitos High School; Andrew Chiu, Placentia, Sunny Hills High School; Jenny Lindemann, Rancho Santa Margarita, Trabuco Hills High School; and Supreet Bakshi, Yorba Linda, Esperanza High School.