2025 NHS Scholarship Recipients
NASSP, parent organization of the National Honor Society, is proud to announce the winners of the 2025 National Honor Society Scholarships!
Every state in the U.S. is represented among the winners, along with the District of Columbia and our overseas chapters. These students, all members of the class of 2025, were chosen from among thousands of applicants. Finalists receive $5,625. At the National Education Leadership Awards, four Pillar Award winners will receive an additional $5,000 and the National winner will receive a total of $25,000.
Finalists
Bella Brown
Bella Brown
Walter Payton College Prep
Bella Brown is the co-founder and president of Living Outside, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit with 19 global chapters dedicated to destigmatizing homelessness through the direct distribution of care bags. Alongside her sister, she has impacted more than 5,000 lives by reframing distribution as a platform for acknowledgment, conversation, and authentic connection. Her mixed-methods research has further confirmed that this unique approach reduces bias. She also serves as the global president of the Junior Economic Club and the executive director of Innoverge. A competitive dancer and a proud big sister, she was recently named one of 150 Coca-Cola Scholars.
Bryce Hunter
Bryce Hunter
Cherry Creek Elevation
Bryce Hunter is the founder of Elevate Local CO, where he has spearheaded initiatives such as the Can Campaign, providing more than 300 meals and meaningful connections to Denver’s unhoused population. His CyberLeaders program has reached more than 350 multilingual elementary students each year, increasing confidence, math skills, and engagement in underrepresented communities. Inspired by his marketing internship, he launched Local Lift, a student-led initiative helping small businesses enhance their digital presence. His leadership extends to national advocacy, serving as an adviser for the Creative Visions National Mental Health Youth Advisory Board, where he contributes to outreach campaigns addressing mental health stigma, locally and nationally. His peer-led mental health initiatives, including Chill Spaces and MOBY Mental Health Task Force, have helped students across the state access mental health resources in a supportive, low-barrier environment. A National Merit Finalist, Carson Scholar, and President’s Volunteer Service Award Gold recipient, he balances his service work with varsity swimming, student leadership, photography, and music production. In college, he plans to integrate engineering, business, and community impact and to continue developing innovative programs that empower individuals and businesses alike.
Carolyn He
Carolyn He
Morris Hills High School
Carolyn He is an environmentalist who combines data-driven advocacy with empathetic servant leadership. She is a World Science Scholar, a national finalist in speech and debate, and a Governor STEM Scholar and Environmental Excellence awardee. She’s proudest of researching and reducing excessive printing in 80 U.S. school districts through her nonprofit, A Sustainable Future, having saved two milion sheets of paper ($23,000) and upskilled 98,000 students in eco-advocacy. She has conducted first-author remote sensing research with NASA analyzing wildfire-induced disruptions to vegetation health and developed satellite burn products for the University of Maryland. She currently holds internships at Virginia Tech’s Center for Environment, Analytics, and Remote Sensing and the U.S. Department of Education. As president of Women in STEM and a leader on the national youth councils of Project Green Schools and the Jane Goodall Institute, she’s passionate about combating “activism anxiety” for the 750,000 youth she serves. She hopes to pursue a career anchoring climate solutions in defensible science and promoting empathetic climate communication.
Christopher Garrabrant
Christopher Garrabrant
Ocean City High School
Christopher Garrabrant has volunteered more than 1,000 hours supporting vulnerable populations. At age 9, he joined Post Crashers, a nonprofit supporting homeless veterans. As a leader, he grew membership to more than 900 youth, resulting in more than 30,000 meals and more than 22,000 pounds of produce donated. Driven by his love for agriculture, he founded Chris’s Coastal Crops, a program educating underprivileged youth on gardening and healthy eating, where he transformed neglected spaces into vibrant community resources. As the only junior officer of his school’s NHS chapter, he created “Stock the Shelves,” an effort to collect donations for food pantries. As NHS president, he grew “Stock the Shelves” to multiple NHS/NJHS chapters, donating thousands of food items and sandwiches. He is captain of his swim and lacrosse teams, vice president of Math Club, founder/president of Standardized Testing Club, officer in Class Council, founder/president of Grilling Club, and he was Rookie of the Year for more than 60 rescues as a Beach Patrol lifeguard. He will attend Harvard University in the fall, where he plans to major in electrical engineering. He hopes to serve his country as a naval officer.
Leila Armand
Leila Armand
Valencia High School
Leila Armand is passionate about using technology for equity and empowering underrepresented communities through advocacy. As a Google Code Next Scholar and Bank of America Student Leader, she explored AI’s role in civic engagement, interning with the Orange County CEO Leadership Alliance to expand the AI talent pipeline in underserved communities. Committed to service, she has volunteered with Black Girls Code and Girl Up, led coding workshops for young girls, and organized districtwide events to amplify Black student voices as president of her school’s Black Student Union. She also served as a keynote speaker for “Empowering Women in STEM,” advocating for greater support for women in engineering. A TEDx speaker and Pomona College radio guest, she has shared insights on the power of diversity in tech. As an athlete, she earned Defensive Player of the Year on Valencia’s varsity basketball team. She will attend Northwestern University, where she plans to major in computer science, working to reduce AI bias and develop inclusive technologies.
Maurits Acosta
Maurits Acosta
Hialeah-Miami Lakes Sr High School
Maurits Acosta represents more than 350,000 students in America’s third-largest school district as the elected student advisor to the Miami-Dade County school board. Born in the Netherlands to Cuban parents, he moved to the United States in 2015 and has since dedicated himself to building the next generation of our country’s civic leaders. In 2022, he founded Virtutem Populo, Inc., a student-led 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization dedicated to promoting civic engagement and community involvement among youth in Florida. Through the organization, he has raised more than $50,000 for civic education and reached more than 3,000 students with impactful educational programs. In 2024, he was named a delegate to the United States Senate Youth Program and the National PTA Outstanding Youth Advocate of the Year. This spring he will graduate with his associate in arts degree from Miami-Dade College. He plans to study government at Harvard University.
Mila Sonkin
Mila Sonkin
Santa Fe Christian School
Mila Sonkin is dedicated to fostering innovation and inclusivity. Inspired to bring business opportunities to her school, she successfully lobbied administrators to add a business course and start an Entrepreneur Club. In 2024, she received recognition in the San Diego Union-Tribune for organizing the Harvard Women in Business BOLD Conference trip two years in a row and founding her school’s DECA chapter. In addition to being math team president and yearbook editor, she is captain of the varsity tennis team and varsity track and field team. Inspired by her aunt who is on the spectrum, she started volunteering for Autism Tree, where she became an intern and founded one of their programs. She also launched an affiliated club and created an annual give back initiative which raised $20,000 in the first year. In 2023, she received Autism Tree’s Volunteer of the Year award. Along with publishing a paper on neuromarketing, she wrote three research papers on autism which were published in the Curieux Academic Journal, Innovation Hub World, and the International Journal of Innovative Science and Research Technology. She aspires to merge business, research, and advocacy in college to create impactful solutions for communities in need.
Natalie Hodge
Natalie Hodge
Robert Service High School
Natalie Hodge-Hannula is a dedicated advocate for youth empowerment, education, and suicide prevention. As the founder of the nonprofit Keys to the Future, they have impacted more than 30 rural Alaskan communities by providing life skills workshops, empowering youth to thrive beyond high school. Their leadership in this initiative earned them a $2,000 grant for continued nonprofit work and the Spirit of Youth Award in 2025, celebrating exceptional youth involvement in Alaska. They serve as president of NHS and YANA (You Are Not Alone) chapters at their school, promoting academic excellence and suicide awareness, building both a thrift/necessities store for students in need as well as an “Envision Your Future” chalk wall empowering student voice for their school community. They also serve as the Stories of Youth Liaison for the Youth Alliance for a Healthier Alaska (YAHA) under the State of Alaska Department of Public Health, amplifying youth voices statewide. A full-time worker of four jobs, they will graduate as class valedictorian and a 2025 Coca-Cola Scholar. They plan to pursue a degree in neuroscience on a pre-med track, aiming to advance rural telemedicine and public health initiatives.
Riley Plante
Riley Plante
La Salle Academy
Riley Plante founded Helping Hands of EG, a nonprofit supporting families facing illness or loss, raising more than $50,000 to provide direct assistance. She also raised $43,000 for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society, earning second in New England’s Student Visionary of the Year competition. Her passion for service extends internationally; she fundraises for Mustard Seed Communities in Jamaica, which supports abandoned children with disabilities, and sponsors a child with muscular dystrophy, funding her education and therapy. She is also dedicated to helping immigrants, working with African refugees in Spain by teaching them basic Spanish as they begin new lives. Inspired by this experience, she now volunteers in a bilingual inner-city elementary school, helping students overcome language barriers. Additionally, she has spent the past five years volunteering as a soccer coach for children, fostering teamwork and confidence in five-year-olds. She has served as student council president for four years and swim team captain during her junior and senior years.
Shriya Kunam
Shriya Kunam
Denmark High School
Shriya Kunam is Georgia HOSA’s vice president of officer relations, strengthening leadership across more than 19,000 members and spearheading the Book by Book program to provide testing resources to rural chapters. As the co-founder of the DreamBridge Foundation, she combats food insecurity in her county, driving initiatives that have provided more than 5,000 canned goods and meal kits monthly, believing that no student should have to choose between hunger and education. Her advocacy extends to global healthcare equity. Selected to speak at the Johns Hopkins University Global Health Leaders Conference, she amplifies critical conversations on public health. As president of her high school’s Women in STEM chapter, she empowers more than 100 young women to pursue careers in STEM, shaping a future where innovation knows no gender. Dedicated to improving quality of life for the more than 15 million worldwide living with neurological injuries, she researches neuromodulation at Columbia University, aids patient recovery as a clinical intern, and has devoted more than 225 hours to memory care. She envisions a world where health care is not a privilege, but a promise—and she’s determined to make it a reality.
Amelie Chen
Amelie Chen
Pacific Horizons School
Amelie Chen is an international award-winning scientist, world-touring dancer, published chef, and national athlete. She is a STEM leader and the first American Samoan to win prestigious academic and athletic competitions. She placed at the International Science and Engineering Fair, the National Junior Science and Humanities Symposium, and won the MVP Award at the MATE ROV Robotics World Championships. She returned home to teach remotely operated vehicle workshops, deliver talks for NOAA and the U.S. Department of Education, present to public school teachers in the territory, and volunteer at the Boys & Girls Club. She served as stuent government president for two years. and as Interact president, she led beach cleanups, served as a lifeguard, and supported the Youth Special Needs Community. She also founded a mental health campaign and sold art for charity. She is the varsity soccer captain, a sailing coach, and a national competitor in golf, sailing, and handball.
Cailyn Pan
Cailyn Pan
Charter School of Wilmington
Cailyn Pan is a student leader dedicated to bridging science and policy for sustainable change. She is the founder and director of Stitched Green, a social enterprise dedicated to reducing textile waste. She also serves as Delaware’s Editor-in-Chief of Youth in Government, logistics leader at the Youth Environmental Summit, and an event supervisor for Delaware Science Olympiad, empowering others to explore the intersections of environmental science and civic engagement. She has interned at the Delaware Higher Education Office and the Delaware Public Health Association, examining how institutions can better implement data-driven education and health policy. She currently conducts plant sciences research at the University of Delaware. In her free time, she enjoys swimming on her school and summer teams, volunteering at the Food Bank of Delaware, and capturing life through cameras. She is a Morgan Stanley Finance Academy Scholar, National STEM Challenge Winner, Secretary of Education Scholar, and Summer Science Program alumnus.
Pritika Kharkwal
Pritika Kharkwal
Lebanon Trail High School
Pritika Kharkwal is the youngest winner of the Excellence in Mentoring Award for Corporate Youth Leadership, which she received for leading a successful mentoring initiative for diverse youth. She has also worked on national legislation, such as the Foster Youth Mentoring Act, with congressional staff. She is the host of “Talk It out with Pritika Kharkwal,” a mentoring/mental health podcast, and the author of It’s Time to Start Looking In, a youth self-help book. She is a student advisor at the Digital Wellness Lab and a youth advisory board member at Making Caring Common, a project of the Harvard Graduate School of Education. She is the captain of her mock trial team and founder of a peer mentoring program, Girls In the Corporate World. She is also a 2024 Coolidge Senator and a 2025 Coca-Cola Scholar semifinalist. A nationally ranked speaker in extemporaneous speech, multimedia/promotion, and entrepreneurship, she hopes to pursue a career in entrepreneurship and public service.
Nishita Karikatti
Nishita Karikatti
BASIS Oro Valley
Nishita Karikatti is her school’s valedictorian and a recipient of the Gold Presidential Volunteer Service Award for more than 500 hours of service. She serves as the vice president of the Metropolitan Education Commission Youth Advisory Council, where she advocates for youth mental health and education equity, representing more than 30,000 students and engaging with Arizona state legislators and the governor. She is also the American Red Cross Ambassador for Arizona and New Mexico, leading more than 50 school chapters, coordinating statewide blood drives, and spearheading a regional homelessness relief project. A third-degree black belt in Taekwondo, she has trained for more than 10 years, competed as a national qualifier, and mentors more than 50 younger students. As a Model UN coach, she has helped her team become the number one ranked delegation in Arizona. She has dedicated significant hours to volunteering in hospitals, with rural health initiatives, and at Tucson’s largest cultural events.
Calista Woo
Calista Woo
Mountain View High School
Calista Woo is a national debate champion and president of her high school’s speech and debate team. She has witnessed how effective communication catalyzes change. Through directing the Youth Forensic League, she revitalized speech and debate classes at three middle schools and launched two elementary school sites, independently hosting tournaments for more than 150 novice competitors. Her leadership in Girls Who Code and Computer Engineers of the Next Generation has helped to make computer science education accessible to hundreds of underserved students throughout California. Through her school’s TEDx chapter and Principal’s Advisory Council, she advocates for platforms that amplify diverse student perspectives.
Shayleen Moeini
Shayleen Moeini
St Patrick Catholic High School
Shayleen Moeini is an advocate for gun violence awareness and medical research, while serving as the president of various organizations, including NHS. Over the past three years, she has played a vital role in organizing triannual blood drives in her community, raising cancer awareness and earning recognition from her statewide American Red Cross. As the co-founder of her school’s National Foreign Language Society chapter, she established a mentorship program with local elementary schools, connecting high school students with 700 young learners. Passionate about research, she focuses on expanding accommodations for students with psychological disabilities and developing preventative methods for neurodegenerative disorders, earning recognition as a three-time International Science and Engineering Fair finalist. She attended the Trent Lott Institute and the Hugh O’Brian World Leadership Congress, which inspired her to present her educational initiatives in the U.S. Senate Youth Program. With more than 600 hours of service, she is an avid volunteer with the Tim Tebow Foundation, the Gulfport Women’s Resource Center, and the Gulfport Mayor’s Youth Council. She plans to study biology and policy at Columbia University.
Jalia Charlery
Jalia Charlery
Sebring Sr High School
Jalia Charlery is the captain of the varsity cheerleading team, president of student government, an AVID scholar and leadership team member, NHS member, a senior Superintendent Student Council member, NAACP member, secretary of the Junior Ambassador program at her local chamber, and a member of the Take Stock in Children Foundation and Big Brothers Big Sisters program. She is a stand out National African American Recognition recipient of College Board, a Champion for Children youth award finalist, and a Leaders 4 Life Fellowship finalist. She plans to pursue a career in dentistry, giving patients the knowledge, comfort, and love they deserve.
Rishi Kanchi
Rishi Kanchi
William Fremd High School
Rishi Kanchi is an NHS chapter officer, who has spearheaded multiple educational initiatives, including Chess Pupils, an international nonprofit providing chess education through tutoring, tournaments, camps, online courses, and more. As co-president of Midwest Math Circle, he teaches students competition-level mathematics. He co-founded both his school’s and his district’s hackathons. Beyond organizing events, he has won five hackathons, most notably the Best Technology award at Google’s CodeYourDreams Hackathon. He has conducted neurodegenerative disease research on developing ALS treatments through computer modeling and biological tests with C. elegan worms, presenting his results at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory. An accomplished Indian classical singer, he has performed the Indian National Anthem at a Windy City Bulls basketball game. As youth captain of Vidyaranya Kannada Kuta, an Indian cultural organization, he launched an annual event blending traditional Indian performances with modern games to engage young participants. In college, he hopes to focus on computer science and neuroscience.
Raghav Pallapothu
Raghav Pallapothu
River Bluff High School
Raghav Pallapothu is a dedicated researcher and health care advocate. Inspired by his own experience with pediatric epilepsy, he has pursued extensive neuroscience research, interning at Duke University’s Department of Neurology and Harvard University’s OpenBio Research Institute. He also works as an Alzheimer’s research intern with his local university’s Aging Brain Cohort, where he published a first-author pilot dietary study and presented his findings at a university symposium. He is president of his school’s HOSA chapter and co-founder of its Mu Alpha Theta chapter. An accomplished pianist, he has performed at prestigious venues such as the Kimmel Cultural Center in Philadelphia. With aspirations to combine medical practice and research, he plans to follow an MD/PhD path, ultimately founding his own neuroscience lab to advance epilepsy and Alzheimer’s research while mentoring students facing medical challenges.
Ella Reinhart
Ella Reinhart
BASIS San Antonio Shavano Campus
Ella Reinhart is a passionate advocate for women in STEM and co-founded an all-girls chapter of FIRST Tech Challenge robotics team #18094, leading them as Head of Notebook to earn the prestigious FIRST Inspire Award for three consecutive years and driving initiatives to increase female participation in STEM. With her team’s support, she founded the FIRST Year, FIRST Responders, and Elementary School Programs and further extended her outreach by presenting at conferences, including two CenTex international conferences and four FIRST Robotics Kickoffs. She organized dozens of community-focused events, reaching more than 1,000 people, including Women in STEM panels, NASA Overnight Build-a-thons, Halloween Food Drives, feminine product drives, speaker events, and collaborations with established organizations such as Girls Learn International, and international FIRST teams. She also co-founded successful peer tutoring and AP study sessions programs, impacting more than 1,000 students, and serves as a teaching assistant for AP Physics and Biology. Currently, she’s developing a satellite center of gravity determination method at Muon Space for her senior research project and contributing to advanced research at the University of Texas at San Antonio’s Corrosion Control Laboratory. She hopes to puruse a career as a mechanical engineer, inspiring future generations in STEM.
Ayla Zook
Ayla Zook
King George High School
Ayla Zook is the statewide executive president of Y Street, Virginia’s largest youth-led public health organization. In that role, she has led efforts to pass policies for tobacco-free public spaces and accessible water resources in schools in over 25 localities across the commonwealth. In 2023, she was selected as one of three youth panelists at the National Champions for Youth Summit, where she emphasized the critical role of youth in advocacy movements. As an Eagle Scout, she created a virtual STEM education program for a local museum, helping young learners engage with original at-home science experiments. She enjoys researching quantum neuroscience theories with a professor at the University of Waterloo, exploring the potential of physics in understanding the brain. She is also a dedicated leader in NHS, SkillsUSA, DECA, Scouting, and Youth Political Advocacy Committee, which she founded. She has placed as a finalist at DECA’s ICDC, the National SkillsUSA Conference, and the Military Child of the Year Program.
Sophie Wang
Sophie Wang
BASE Beaverton Academy of Science and Engineering
Sophie Wang is a changemaker for health care equity in underrepresented communities. She serves as Oregon’s state ambassador for the National Organization for Rare Disorders and a GoldTogether National Ambassador for the American Cancer Society. She co-founded Youth HPV Champions, the largest youth-led HPV initiative in the Pacific Northwest. She is also a George W. Bush Point of Lights recipient and a Coca-Cola Scholar. The daughter of a single immigrant mother, she gave a TEDxYouth talk about her family’s experience post-COVID. She is the former Oregon HOSA state president and a youth board member on multiple Oregon school-health nonprofits. She is currently writing and illustrating a children’s book that she hopes to publish in the near future.
Jazmin Garza
Jazmin Garza
Science Academy of South Texas
Jazmin Garza is the president of student council, NHS, and Girls Who Code. Her leadership extends to Business Professionals of America, where she serves as vice president, and the Junior Catholic Daughters of the Americas, where, as president, she has led initiatives raising thousands of dollars for uninsured women’s health care. She is a Coca-Cola Scholars semifinalist and a Hispanic Heritage Foundation youth awardee. She has spent two summers conducting research at a National Science Foundation-funded engineering experiment station, developing cost-effective health technologies for underserved populations. She has also participated at the Rice University Synthetic Biology Institute, where she earned a research award. As a youth panelist, she has addressed South Texas leaders on educational disparities in Hispanic communities.
Havannah Ladzekpo
Havannah Ladzekpo
Riverbend High School
Havannah Ladzekpo is the founder of Pages to Progress, a noprofit initative that collaborates with the African Library Project (ALP) to bridge the educational gap of developing countries by building libraries in Anglophone African countries. The initiative currently serves more than 2,000 students with more than $15,000 in literary materials, leading her to be recognized with the Gold Presidential Volunteer Service Award and as a Global Literacy Champion by the ALP. Her commitment to service and leadership extends to various organizations, including NHS, establishing her school’s Cancer Kids First chapter, serving as four-year president of Family, Community and Career Leaders of America, being selected as a representative for the Virginia Hugh O’Brian Youth National Leadership Conference, and volunteering at Mary Washington Hospital. She has explored her career interests in health care by conducting extensive bioscientific research on the experimental usage of epidural spinal cord stimulation treatment for paralysis in the Commonwealth Governor’s School culminating program and in microbiology at the Summer Residential Governor’s School Program for Math, Science, and Technology. She is also an executive officer of the Riverbend Science, Zeta Omicron Computer Science, and Mu Alpha Theta Math Honor Societies.
Ethan Leicht
Ethan Leicht
Randall K Cooper High School
Ethan Leicht has served more than 2,000 hours of community service and developed a passion for helping underserved and vulnerable communities. He has served as president of GO Pantry for three years, raising awareness and distributing essential meals to children facing food insecurity. He frequently volunteers at his local soup kitchen to provide food to the homeless, leads a volunteering group at his library to teach literacy to youth, and also offers service, support, and help as president of the Outreach Ministry of his church. He is a three-time gold-level honoree in the President’s Volunteer Service Award, a three-time recipient of Innerview National Ambassador Service Award, and the only student awarded the 2024 ZEB scholarship. He is currently interning at St. Elizabeth Hospital and hopes to become a physician.