HOUSTON – KPRC 2 and American Furniture Warehouse are surprising 20 deserving high school seniors with $2,500 scholarships in 2025. All students selected for scholarships have been nominated by their high schools.
Ridge Point High School senior Sammy Berko is the seventh Senior Scholarship recipient from the Class of 2025. Ridge Point High School in Missouri City is part of the Fort Bend Independent School District.
Berko serves as a spokesperson for the Sudden Arrhythmia Death Syndromes Foundation (SADS) as well as iHope Kids Foundation. He miraculously survived a sudden cardiac arrest event caused by an underlying genetic condition. The same condition, they later found out, claimed the life of Sammy’s younger brother Frankie.
Berko lives with paraplegia now and continues to manage his heart condition. He hasn’t let those circumstances limit him in any way though. He is a skilled musician who serves as Percussion Captain for his school’s marching band. He is also active in the Spanish National Honor Society.
In his scholarship nomination essay, Berko told KPRC 2, “My contribution to society will not be about anything that happened to me, it will be about what I can make happen.” He will attend Vanderbilt University in the fall and plans to double major in physics and neuroscience.
You can see the scholarship surprise for Sammy Berko in the video player at the top of this article.
Learn more about Berko’s medical journey in the video below.
