Perfect grades.

Stellar extracurriculars.

Formula 1 race car driving enthusiast.

One may describe Coppell High School 2025 valedictorian Ashia Agarwal as the all-knowing genius, but she is more than her academic success.

Her story starts in India, where she lived for six years. There, her family owns a shelter for those unable to afford housing.

“The shelter is located near the Ganges River, so the people there would go to the river and we would clean up some things,” Agarwal said. “It’s one of the core memories I have and I think that was the start of my passion for environmentalism.”

With her early experience in sustaining the environment through her family’s homeland and finding excitement while completing a gardening project in fourth grade, Agarwal’s passion for the environment followed her to high school.

At CHS9, she founded EcoSummit, a nonprofit aimed at expanding environmental awareness through events and technological development.

“We just held our second summit in the Dallas downtown area where we played a movie screening called ‘The Story of Plastics’ that basically breaks down the myth of recycling,” Agarwal said.  “Afterwards, I did some research on our plastic consumption in the Coppell High School cafeteria and created an application that would help reduce our carbon emissions and invited city officials to see if they wanted to implement those solutions.”

Agarwal partners with the CHS Eco Club and the Dallas Sierra Club to compound her efforts to create change.

“Ashia is incredibly hardworking and very motivated to see change happen and follow through with projects and ideas more than most people that I work with,” Eco Club adviser Jodie Deinhammer said. “She has run all of our fundraising events for the year and she’s our Sierra Club representative, so she works directly with the Dallas Sierra Club to find opportunities for us to be involved in the community.”

Currently, Agarwal’s application, called Clean Sweep, is in the process of being patented.

“If a city were to implement it, it would help reduce their carbon emissions during trash pickups,” Agarwal said. “Coppell specifically has a bulk trash pickup, but a lot of times people don’t always need it, so the app helps optimize concise routes for trash pickup workers to reduce gas emissions.”

Through developing the application by using JavaScript, Agarwal estimated that the city of Coppell may save 70,000 pounds of carbon dioxide per year if the application is implemented.

Underneath the tremendous amount of work and effort, Agarwal often feels scrutinized by her peers around her.

“I am the way that I am and I have achieved what I have achieved because I realized early on that people were viewing me as competition even when personally, I felt like I was at the lowest,” Agarwal said. “It is kind of dehumanizing a little to understand that’s how people view you, but I think I came off stronger because of it and because of the people I had around me.”

Agarwal’s personality and compassion guides those around her, uplifting their spirits.

“She’s very practical upon first impression, but the more you get to know her, the more you can see that she really, really cares,” senior Sahana Peechara said. “She’s very straightforward about what she wants and I really appreciate that especially because it’s nice to know exactly what your place is with someone, and I know that her place with me is really close to my heart.”

Her friends admire her work ethic and diligence, finding inspiration from her goals.

“She’s so driven and hardworking and she knows how to prioritize, which is a really good skill,” Peechara said. “Honestly, I don’t know where she’s going to go, but I know it’s going to be a great place, whether it be in any aspect of her life.”

Behind the success of Agarwal’s academics is her ability to focus on her future and the ability to manage her time.

“It took a lot of effort and energy to do that, and at the same time also focus on my other priorities, an important one of which was my friends and social life,” Agarwal said. “I think that the constant support from my group of friends was a massive component of what really got me through high school feeling really happy and motivated, and got me to where I am.”

In the fall, Agarwal plans to major in environmental science and policy at Duke University.

Outside of school, Agarwal finds interest in Formula 1 racing.

“I was absolutely hooked by watching the documentary Drive to Survive and I would wake up at 4 a.m. or stay up til 2 a.m. to watch the qualifying sessions before they determine the starting order of the cars on the grid,” Agarwal said. “I really enjoy the high-risk reward environment where the drivers show off their skills that can fully risk ruining their entire chances at becoming champion.”

Agarwal finds joy and adrenaline through the high-risk sport, sharing her interests with her friends.

“I realized that alongside talent, so much of it is genuinely the confidence of the driver which makes it so much more enticing to support them, one of my favorites being Carlos Sainz,” Agarwal said. “I have gotten so many friends into it and I love how we quote random F1 quotes all the time and have become a bigger team by just watching races together.”

Though Agarwal’s academic success is often the main factor highlighted amongst first impressions, underneath the mask of educational success is an individual passionate about what drives her spirit and a compassionate friend to her loved ones.

“It feels like she’s my friend first and valedictorian second,” Peechara said.

This story was originally published on Coppell Student Media on May 2, 2025.