Three students with Gilbert ties are among the 20 Arizona high-school seniors have been awarded the 2025 Flinn Scholarship, the state’s prestigious merit-based award that provides a full ride to an Arizona public university.

Those students with Gilbert ties include:

• Gilbert resident Gishnu Nayak, Arizona College Prep;
• Gilbert resident Smilangi Sidhugari, BASIS Chandler;
• Rati Tabatadze of Tempe, Gilbert Classical Academy.

Nayak's and Sidhugari's selections represent the second consecutive year their school has had a student chosen.

The 40th class of Flinn Scholars receives a comprehensive package valued at more than $135,000 over four years, including the cost of tuition, fees, housing, meals, and at least two study-abroad experiences including a two-week group summer seminar following freshman year.

There were more than 1,100 applications for the 2025 Flinn Scholarship, an award rate of about 2%.

Computer science, engineering, biological and physical science, social sciences and law, business, education, visual and performing arts, and data science and public policy are some of the fields of study the 2025 Scholars plan to pursue at Arizona's three public universities.

The Flinn Scholarship application requires academic transcripts, minimum standardized test scores, essays and short-answer questions, and recommendations. Flinn Scholars are typically in the top 5% of their graduating class and demonstrate leadership and service in extracurricular activities.

The Flinn Scholarship is supported by the Phoenix-based Flinn Foundation in partnership with Arizona’s three public universities.

The foundation, which announced its first class of Flinn Scholars in 1986, created the scholarship to retain Arizona’s highest-achieving students while bolstering the universities’ Honors Colleges as destinations for academic excellence.