After they toiled for years over books, sacrificed weekends for studying and spent late nights awake, the fruits of this select group’s labor are sweet.

Seniors part of the top five percent of Coppell High School’s graduating class had the opportunity Thursday morning to surprise one impactful teacher on their educational careers with an invitation to the annual Coppell Education Foundation Academic Recognition Banquet, which is April 25 at Courtyard and Townplace Suites DFW Airport North.

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Coppell High School senior Megha Goyal surprises CHS Spanish III teacher Koby Pickrell with an invitation to the Coppell Education Foundation Academic Recognition Banquet. Seniors ranked in the top five percent were able to select one teacher who has impacted their learning to accompany them on April 25.

For the first time, the group of students from CHS also received a T-shirt designating their achievement as part of the top five percent.

The banquet is annually held for approximately 40 students from CHS and five students from New Tech High@Coppell who have achieved the highest GPAs calculated after the first semester of their senior year.

“I think [the teachers] felt recognized and honored, like their efforts have paid off I think they appreciate that the students realize that they really care,” Coppell Education Foundation banquet chairman Karen Cook said.

Senior Meryl Xiong chose CHS librarian Lynn Hevron after knowing her for six years through middle and high school.

“I’ve always loved reading and I think reading helps a lot with school in a sense, because it made me associate learning with happiness,” Xiong said.

Similarly, senior Allie Judd choose a teacher who impacted her through an extracurricular activity outside of core classes.

As a choir member since fifth grade, the program has made her who she is with the help of impactful director Josh Brown.

“Mr. Brown has provided me with countless opportunities to make myself a better singer and better person and I just wanted to thank him for all that he has done for me during the past four years,” Judd said.

Students broke up in groups according to the location of their teacher’s room each with a representative from the Coppell Education Foundation that annually assists with organizing the invitations and banquet.

“Students can’t accomplish their academic goals without the teacher’s help and the teacher’s reason for being in education is intrinsically motivated because they want their students to succeed,” Cook said. “I think that they help each other and one can’t function without the other.”

Cheers and claps erupted from the classrooms of surprised teachers and students with emotional, proud and excited responses from teachers.

“We’ve worked so hard over the past four years to grades and makes it seem like it was worth it and now we get to share this experience with the teachers who have helped us along the way,” Judd said.

Students will have the opportunity with their selected teachers to have a photo shoot together on March 29-30 in the choir room.

The photos will then be placed in a memorable booklet for the banquet with a short message from the student about their respective teacher.

As the banquet is focused on excellence in education, the Coppell ISD campus’ Teacher of the Year, Elementary and Secondary Teachers of the Year for the district will also be recognized that same night.