Collage of National Merit Winners

Eight Class of 2025 seniors from Coppell High School have been awarded National Merit College-Sponsored Scholarships, the National Merit Scholarship Corporation announced June 4.

These students are among more than 2,900 recipients nationwide who were selected by officials from sponsoring colleges and universities. The awards, which range from $500 to $2,000 annually, are renewable for up to four years of undergraduate study at the institutions providing the scholarships. An additional group of recipients will be announced in July, bringing the total number of 2025 college-sponsored Merit Scholarship winners to more than 3,600.

The CHS recipients, along with their intended majors and sponsoring universities, are:

  • Rithvik Sai Alasakani, Health Care – University of Texas at Dallas

  • Raj Pradyun Reddy Gaddam, Computer Science – Purdue University

  • Dwij Mehta, Computer Science – Texas A&M University

  • Justin Murdock, Applied Mathematics – Texas A&M University

  • Annie Reeder, Archaeology – University of Oklahoma

  • Julia Savova, Biomedical Engineering – Texas A&M University

  • Stayton Slaughter, Medicine – University of Missouri – Columbia

  • Yunqi Zhang, Software Engineering – Texas A&M University

This year, 146 higher education institutions in 42 states and the District of Columbia are sponsoring awards through the National Merit Scholarship Program. The college-sponsored scholarships are one of three types of awards given by the program, which will ultimately recognize more than 6,930 students in 2025 with scholarships totaling nearly $26 million.