LVHS’s Tadepalli and Willis awarded National Honor Society Scholarship

The National Honor Society has announced that Arya Tadepalli and Julie Willis, seniors at Loudoun Valley High School and members of NHS, have been selected NHS Scholarship semifinalists.

Tadepalli and Willis were chosen from nearly 10,000 applicants and will each receive a $3,200 scholarship toward higher education.

Since 1946, more than $19 million in scholarships have been awarded to outstanding NHS senior members to support college access and student success. The scholarship program is supported by the parent organization of NHS, the National Association of Secondary School Principals.

In the 100 years since NHS was founded in 1921, members have been making a difference in their schools and communities. The NHS Scholarship is NASSP’s way of recognizing the most exceptional of these student leaders. 

Recipients are chosen based on their demonstrated work to support the four pillars of NHS: scholarship, service, leadership, and character.

According to her NHS advisers, Heidi Trude and Taylour Hudson, “Arya is an asset to the Loudoun Valley High School NHS chapter and the LVHS community. As the mentorship chair, Arya works closely with our tutoring program to provide opportunities for students to support each other, and has been instrumental in coming up with ways for NHS members to support fellow students in this very challenging year. We are thrilled to see Arya recognized for all her service to the Valley community!”

At Loudoun Valley High School, Tadepalli has served as the mentorship chair of NHS, the co-president of Mu Alpha Theta, the captain of the LVHS Academic Team, and the team leader of a two-year research project focused on synthesizing a membrane for carbon. She also is a Varsity member of the Loudoun Valley Girls Varsity Track and Field, Loudoun Valley Girls Cross Country team and various travel soccer teams. Tadepalli is the co-founder and COO of InteGirlsDerived, the co-founder of Safe At Home VA, and the president of the Purcellville Teen Leadership Council. 

This fall, she hopes to attend either Georgia Tech’s College of Computing, or the University of Virginia’s School of Engineering and Applied Science Rodman Scholars Program, to study computer science and computer engineering.

According to Trude and Hudson, who are also Julie Willis’s NHS advisers, “Julie is an asset to the Loudoun Valley High School NHS chapter and the LVHS community. Without all of Julie’s leadership and innovative ideas, the LVHS NHS would not have been a success this year. Julie was instrumental in finding service opportunities, managing membership, and leading the organization during a pandemic. She does everything we ask of her and beyond. Julie is simply phenomenal. We are so grateful to have her as our leadership chair. We are thrilled to see Julie recognized as a NHS Scholar for all her leadership and service to the Valley community!” At Loudoun Valley High School, Willis has served as the leadership chair president of the NHS, the president of the American Sign Language Club, a member of the Library Advisory Board, and the Captain of Sports Medicine. She volunteers as an EMT for her local community. In addition, Willis serves as a board member for Sara’s Acts of Kindness, a childhood cancer nonprofit. She also volunteers as a math tutor for Mu Alpha Theta. This fall, Willis plans to attend university to study Biology.

For more information about the NHS, the scholarship, and the 2021 recipients, visit www.nhs.us.