What began as an afternoon presentation about a college scholarship became something far more electric Friday at Alexandria City High School’s Minnie Howard Campus — the moment two seniors realized the opportunity being described was already theirs.
Mohammad Elyas Noorzai and Zhi McMillan each received the Amazon Future Engineers Scholarship, earning up to $40,000 and a guaranteed paid summer internship with one of the world’s largest technology companies, in a surprise announcement before roughly 50 classmates, family members, and Alexandria City Public Schools staff.
The reveal came from an unlikely messenger. Sai Hruthika Naraharisetti, a University of Maryland senior who received the same scholarship in 2022 and will join Amazon full-time as a software engineer in Seattle after graduation this spring, had spent nearly 20 minutes walking the room through the program’s details — eligibility requirements, internship rotations, application tips — before pausing to drop the news…