BOSTON—INDIA New England News, one of the nation’s largest Indian-American news and video magazines serving the South Asian community, announced the winners of its 20-Under-20 Stars for 2023.
The 20-Under-20 Stars were selected based on their achievements, extracurricular activities, entrepreneurship, and participation in community service, as well as exceptional skills in writing, arts and music, among other factors. These winners will be celebrated with a breakfast award ceremony on December 2, 2023. To buy tickets, please click here.
Here are INDIA New England’s ’20 Under 20′ for 2023:
Aaditya Aryan
11th grade
Newton, MA
Aadi, a sixteen-year-old teen, is an exceptional individual who embodies qualities such as commitment, hard work, directness, and kindness. From his early toddler days to his present state as a bright, confident, and kind young man, he has grown in both stature and character.
Aadi is a multifaceted individual who excels in academics, sports, and various extracurricular activities he dedicates himself to. His determination and positive attitude is admirable, which is clearly reflected in his actions and choices throughout the years. Whether it was preparing for Hindi-Manch plays, working on a startup pitch at TYE Boston, focusing on his fitness to excel in baseball, or even putting in extra effort to overcome his least favorite subject, French, at school, Aadi consistently demonstrates his commitment to success.Not content with simply excelling in areas that come naturally to him, he challenges himself by taking advanced classes through the Extension program at Harvard University.
With a strong interest in Finance and Entrepreneurship, Aadi participated in the TYE Boston program last academic year. Together with his team, he nurtured an idea from its infancy to a fully developed platform. Their hard work paid off when they reached the semifinals and secured a top-four position in the competition. Motivated by his positive experience in the TYE program, Aadi now serves as an active ambassador and co-director, eager to give back to the community and mentor the incoming cohort.
Additionally, Aadi utilizes his mathematical skills to tutor elementary school students through the NSV program and volunteers at Newton Athletics Unlimited, where he assists students with special needs in developing their athletic abilities. Aadi’s baseball journey, although still ongoing, has been nothing short of exciting. Despite starting relatively late at the age of ten, Aadi immediately fell in love with the game. Over the years, he has honed his skills and earned a place in travel and all-star teams across multiple seasons. Aadi’s talent led to his induction into the varsity team at his high school as a sophomore—an impressive accomplishment given the size and competitiveness of Newton North.
Furthermore, Aadi’s dedication to the sport earned him an invitation to the national-level combine tryout in Nashville, Tennessee, where he was one of just three athletes chosen from Massachusetts in his age group. Demonstrating his commitment to making a holistic impact, Aadi raised over $1100 for the New Balance’s Future Stars Series Foundation and No Kid Hungry. Aadi’s passion for baseball also got him published at MIT Club of Boston’s Youthful Voices platform, wherein he profiled an MIT athlete.
This summer, as Aadi enters his junior year, he is exploring career possibilities through an internship at an MIT startup. In his role as a Junior Business Associate, Aadi contributes to various business development activities, gaining invaluable experience and insights into the world of entrepreneurship.
Ayana Bahadur
11th grade
Boxborough, MA
Along with being an outstanding student academically, Ayana has dedicated her time to several projects that have a meaningful impact on students around the world. Her accomplishments include starting several non-profit organizations, volunteering countless hours at several organizations, leading the “Speech and Debate” team at her high school, leading the “Girls and Science” club, and leading the “Future Health Care Professionals” club at her high school. Furthermore, she won a grant at Outbreak, a public health boot camp, and presented at the Tewksbury Public Health Museum about her research project, “The Impact of Social Determinants of Cardiovascular Disease.” She won several hundred dollars as a grant and now works as an alumni assistant at the program to lead an epidemiology session. She also served as a Student Visionary at the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society to fundraise for cancer research. She is also interning at Harvard University this summer.
In 2021, she co-founded what is now a 501c3 certified non-profit called Genxl to bridge the gap in STEM education created by the pandemic. She focuses on bringing her passions of biology and anatomy to students of underprivileged communities to support students in every endeavor, help them find their passions, and inspire them to explore it as much as they can, in a way that typically isn’t offered in school systems. She wants them to know that “school isn’t the only learning that exists, and by supplying interests outside of school, students get truly excited about learning”. Genxl now represents 44 international countries and has impacted thousands of students worldwide. Their team is currently working on a project to install a ramp next to major stairways in her school to increase accessibility for students with disabilities that are left unaccounted for.
Ayana is also President of her school’s HOSA Future Healthcare Professionals Club and Girls in Science Club. In these clubs, she works to show other girls how our disadvantages can be turned into advantages that inspire and drive us throughout our careers. She doesn’t want people of marginalized communities to look that hard to find their place in STEM; she wants there to be adequate representation of all communities so that they can accomplish their dreams. So, through these clubs, she leads a mentorship program with the Junior High school and also created a Nutrition initiative. She is also captain of the Speech and Debate team and a member of Beyond Resolved, a student-led organization advocating for change in the MA speech and debate community. They have hosted informational events, distributed buttons and stickers at competitions, and helped lessen the financial cost of tournaments to economically disadvantaged groups through fundraising.
She recently started an organization called Light on the Heart to shine a light on cardiovascular care for minorities through advocacy and research. The organization provides guidance in starting scientific research and mentorship in STEM throughout high school. It also aims to create equality in cardiovascular care by bringing awareness to our congressional representatives about health disparities amongst minority groups.
She is very passionate about research and wants to help other students get exposure to it since research is the foundation for such advancements in healthcare. She was a Student Visionary of the Year at the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society for fundraising in a 7-week campaign and raising thousands of dollars for funding in research for pediatric blood cancers. Through her work at LLS, she found her passion for blood cancer research and joined Chai and Tenen Labs at Harvard Medical School. She is currently working on a project using the PRISM screening method to develop a more efficient RNA-seq processing pipeline compared to currently available tools to detect gene expression changes.
Rutvij Borkar
10th grade
Westborough, MA
Rutvij has been a software developer at 2 Fortune 500 Companies. He started as a mere intern but eventually climbed the ranks and got a multiple full-time developer offers. He has also been the head of Finance at Brainwave Psychology which meant he dealt and commanded a significant sum of money. He raised over $10K at his 2 years at Brainwave. He has also started his own non-profit, Bright Futures, which holds in-person and remote coaching sessions as well as a free open library. He also started a social media account for his non-profit that promotes mental health. He will also spend this summer researching at Tufts University on targeted genome editing, he spent last summer doing the same and published a research paper.
He is also doing the 2023 Biogen-MIT Summer Lab. He did the BWSI MIT Beaver Works Embedded Hardware Hacking Internship. He learned Python, Git/Github, Command Line Interface, Machine Learning, Calculus, and Linear Algebra. He has a diploma from Asean in Nursing. He is also working towards his Associates Degree which he will finish with alongside his high school diploma.
He has also founded Data Science Club at his school, and merged it with CS Club which he is also at the top of the executive rank of. He also has a e-commerce company that has made 6k in profits. He has also founded and outsourced a youth STEM program at the local library. He is also the Champions Campaign Chair at American Cancer Society. He also has 13+ CS certifications including the coveted IBM Data Science Proffesional. He has also won these awards: International Climate Science Olympiad Semi-Finalist, International Environmental Olympiad Finalist, International Astrophysics Olympiad Finalist (w/ Gold Honor) and Nationals Science Bowl Qualifier.
Pradnya Cowlagi
9th grade
Shrewsbury, MA
Pradnya Cowlagi is a rising freshman at Shrewsbury High School. She is also an entrepreneur, designer, blogger, a passionate volunteer, chef, and a budding scientist. In 2022, Pradnya founded aptus.design – a design firm focused on bringing high quality print and online media design to non-profits and organizations. She has already executed several impactful projects including an personalized souvenir brochure for the India Society of Worcester’s premier fundraising gala. Pradnya is currently working on a UX Design Professional certification from Google to bolster her credentials in this space.
Pradnya has been active in several STEM competitions. Throughout middle school, her FLL Robotics team won 6+ awards at the regional and state levels, culminating in a placement at the International FLL tournament in Thessaloniki, Greece. The team also won the IAGB Junior Shark Tank award for their project presentation. In 2023, she won the first prize in Mass State Science and Engineering Fair (MSEF) regional tournament for her project “Screentime for Worms”, followed by a second prize at the state fair. She was nominated to compete in the national Thermo Fischer Scientific Junior Innovators Challenge, representing the top-placing projects nationwide.
In school, Pradnya is an accomplished student. She has won the Oak Middle School Principal’s award for outstanding academic achievement and the OMS World Language Scholar award for her accomplishments in French. She is a part of her school’s speech team and won 5 first place awards in statewide speech tournaments last year. As a rising freshman, she was elected to the high school student council.
In her free time, Pradnya is a passionate volunteer for the India Society of Worcester and the Indian Youth Group. During the COVID shutdown, with her robotics team, she conducted remote robotics training classes for students in India and USA. In 2023, Pradnya was awarded the President’s Volunteer Service Gold award by AmeriCorps & President Biden for her volunteer work. She has been learning Indian Classical Music for several years and has performed at several venues including the Worcester Art Museum.
She writes a blog named ‘Generally Speaking’ on her observations on technology and society, with many articles published in the India Society’s eSandesh newsletter. Pradnya is also passionate about cooking and is frequently called upon by friends to make desserts and pastries for celebrations and events.
Sanah Goenka
10th grade
Wellesley, MA
Sanah Goenka is a Sophomore at Wellesley High School in MA. In 2020, Sanah co-founded the Help Empower Foundation, a non-profit organization, to encourage young people to take part in worthwhile humanitarian endeavors. The organization’s mission was to raise money and public awareness for initiatives that grant girls in underprivileged communities the right to an education, better health, and gender equality. Several elementary and middle school students in the neighborhood who were impacted by school closures received free online STEM tutoring through Covid.
She has teamed up with Worcester, MA-based Girls, Inc. to offer free online tutoring, and she has also raised money to assist back-to-school, holiday book, and winter clothing drives for them. In order to inspire and guide kids in middle and elementary schools in ways to give back to the community, she established the Youth Ambassador Program in Massachusetts and Mumbai, India.
With the assistance of other young volunteers from the Help Empower Youth Ambassador, Mumbai, India Chapter, which Sanah founded, she prepared and served meals to more than 150 underprivileged children living in slums in Mumbai, India throughout the course of the summer. With the aid of her group, she has also organized numerous food drives for the Newton Center Street Pantry Kids Club.
Sanah was also a team leader and co-captain for the Light a Lamp Campaign 2022/23 of the New England American India Foundation. Her team raised $5861 for the education of impoverished children in India. She is a Youth Ambassador for AIF and since 2018, she has taken part in numerous fundraising events for the Light a Lamp Campaign, which has helped the American Indian Foundation (www.aif.org) educate over 200 underprivileged children of migrant workers in India. She is also actively involved in her school community service clubs like the Key Club and Red Cross Club.
Rahul Gupta
12th grade
North Andover, MA
Rahul is a very hard working student. He will be joining Georgia Tech. for Robotics Engineering. He is very creative and always looks for the opportunity to give back to community. As soon as he joined high school after 9th grade the COVID came in and he could not do much in Robotics filed as all activities and competitions were on hold. While he was home he started looking for the activities and opportunity to do something from home. As from 7th grade he was involved in 3D printing he started working on different 3D hobby projects. Then he was exploring the field to find sometime to do he found the community who were making the masks for the hospitals and shelters at the time. He worked with doctors and nurses to design the 3D-printed customized mask. Once approved, he made the masks and gave to local fire stations and more. While his community was making cloth masks, they ran out the buttons, so Rahul became their 3D printed button provider. He started designing the buttons and printed as per their requests. He also printed various supports accessories for doctors and nurses. He spent all his 9th grade and 10th grade summer in helping the community to make masks.
Once the school started in-person, he felt the school is missing the maker -space which will help to improve his STEM and robotics skills. He worked the professors and school community to get the funding to make the maker space. He got $10,000 funding from his school to make the maker space. He established the maker space and started encouraging the students to get involved in STEM and technology. There were 5 kids interested in the STEM and Robotics program at the start, and by the time he was 12th grade, there were 100 students. He lead the Robotics Team in his school and make it to their state competition in a first for his school. First time his school went to States Competition. He also likes to serve the community, so he goes to the shelter to prepare the meal for 300 people, helping in the kitchen to cook the meals. He has 4.0 GPA and all 4 years distinction award holder. He is also the member of Center of Talented Youth (CTY) at John Hopkins.
Vaishnavi Harish
12th grade
Ashland, MA
Vaishnavi developed her interest in academic excellence by committing herself to rigorous courses and meaningful extracurriculars, both in and outside of school. She finished tenth grade with a GPA of 4.45, and led her school’s Girls Who Code team and was the vice president of her school’s Debate Club. She then transferred to the Massachusetts Academy of Math and Science, where she challenged herself with AP level courses. She has completed several long-term research and engineering projects throughout the course of her junior year. She has achieved the AP Scholar Award after self-studying for AP Calculus BC, and taking AP Computer Science A and AP European History. She is part of the National Honors Society and NSHSS. She competes in her school’s robotics team as a member of the pit crew and her school’s math team, earning a top scorer award in the Worcester County Math League.
She also participated in a group cybersecurity competition called CyberPatriot (where her team earned a gold tier award) and was a finalist in the American Computer Science League. Outside of the school year, she likes to challenge herself with summer programs that further her interest in engineering and science, including a virtual lab/seminar at Biogen-MIT and a rigorous cellular biology course at Tufts University.
Vaishnavi has taken advantage of all of the volunteering opportunities that came to her through her school and otherwise. She is a part of Language Virtual, a nonprofit organization that aims to help young children learn English by working with a volunteer high school tutor. She creates lesson plans, recommends books, and frequently communicates with the parents of the student she teaches. She also volunteers at the Ashland Farmers market, helping vendors set up and dismantle their stands, and keeps the area clean during the market hours. Through her school and clubs, she has participated in outreach programs that bring the joy of STEM to elementary schools in the Worcester area. For example, she and her group explained scientific concepts, such as energy and motion, to elementary school children through activities and crafts, and walked through the process of civic project planning with another nearby elementary school. Through her robotics team, she also showcased her team’s robot to prospective club members. Educator Outside of Language Virtual, the volunteer program where she teaches English to young children, Vaishnavi tutors her neighbors in mathematical topics. She also created lesson plans in computer science topics to teach high school girls through her school’s Girls Who Code club and enabled her team to submit an app prototype to the Technovation Girls computer science competition.
Vaishnavi has explored the field of biomedicine and biomedical engineering throughout her high school years. She takes summer programs at universities such as Tufts and MIT to learn more about careers in biotechnology and to gain lab experience. She is working with a group of students from her school to create an assistive technology device (automatic robotic feeder arm) to help a client with a form of muscular dystrophy. Through meetings with the client, design brainstorming sessions, and manufacturing parts through computer aided design, Vaishnavi has gained valuable experience in the world of biomedical engineering. Her group is aiming to file a provisional patent.
Sowndaryan Jayaprakashanand
Freshman in college
Burlington, MA
In Sowydaryan’s own words, “I immigrated to the United States at the age of 10, where I struggled to comprehend English the schools here. Despite this, I knew I had an opportunity that many others didn’t and decided to make the most of it. From being unable to speak English properly, I climbed to the top 5% of my graduating high school class with honors and involved myself greatly in the Burlington community. I currently face green card issues in the United States, as my nationality and visa status prevent me from obtaining a green card before I turn 21, leaving me to either leave the country or fend for myself on an international student visa. Despite these issues, I continued to serve my community, whether it be teaching elementary students or creating a spotlight for my high school’s student athletes. I hope to continue my professional career in the US, where I hope to combine my strong math, computer, photo, and business skills to study my interests in artificial intelligence and sports media to research computer vision and launch an automated photo editing software that will innovate the sports media industry.”
Sowndaryan was awarded the Presidential Volunteer’s Service Award for his service as a student teacher at Shishu Bharati School of Languages and Culture of India, where he taught school curriculum in Hindi and culture classes to K-8 students. Sowndaryan is founder and president of Burlington Math Circle, a free math program where he taught weekly online classes to local elementary school students, teaching them accelerated math content, created own class curriculum and material for 40+ students, organized a team of student volunteers including myself. He is the owner of SowndyFlix, a local business that creates free sports photography and videography content for all boys and girls sports teams at Burlington High School to bring attention to sports at our school, provides highlight reels, action shots, candids, graphics, and has amassed over 50k views on social media platforms and operated as the school sports yearbook photographer, as well as managing a number of clients for personal and private photography (@sowndyflix on instagram as well as @devs_nation)
As part of BHS Student Government, Sowndaryan collaborated and set up fundraiser events, dances, spirit weeks and organized by collective student body, designed promotional content for fundraisers, events, dances, and managed social medias for the student body, organized school’s first ever homecoming in the 21st century. He led the mechanical crew at Burlington High’s first-ever FRC robotics team (Team 2876), managed and worked robot and chassey assembly, supervised pit safety protocols as assistant safety captain and setup during competitions, led scouting app development, built menu UIs, input system, and data displays (Angular & Typescript), helped team compete at state level championships. Sowndaryan volunteers withLegal Dreamers / The Hidden Dream Advocacy, a 501(c)(3) legal immigration advocacy program for children of high skill visa workers who face greencard troubles, regularly posting educational content, has held speaker meetings, panels, discussions for navigating through the greencard system, worked with Massachusetts and other state reps and senators to advocate and introduce legislation changes to help visa dreamers from “aging out”.
Vedant Kotnis
12th grade
Westborough, MA
Vedant has explored his interests in and out of the classroom throughout his high school. Academically, he has taken several honors and AP courses, including AP Bio, AP Chem, and AP Psychology which he hopes will position him well for possible majors in those areas, including graduate programs that involve deeper research opportunities.
Vedant took an early interest in martial arts and joined a Karate school at the age of 8. Because of his passion and achievements in Karate, Vedant is getting noticed nationally as an emerging Karetka. After getting his initial belts, Vedant started competing in Karate tournaments at the age of 12. He has participated in numerous tournaments since then and has amassed 20 Gold Medals, 11 Silver Medals, and 11 Bronze medals. At the National-level competitions held by USA Karate annually, Vedant became a national champion in the novice category in the 2018 National Championships held in Reno, NV. In 2021, he competed for the first time in the highest (Elite) category and became a National Champion again. By doing that, he became a member of Team USA and was the #1 seed to represent the USA in his category in the Jr. Pan American Karate Championships which was unfortunately canceled because of the pandemic. In 2022, Vedant secured the #5 spot in Team USA. At the recently concluded team trials in Richmond, Virginia, Vedant secured his Top 3 spot in Team USA again.
At this young age, Vedant is already a second-degree black belt and practices Karate forms in four major different styles. He is an inspiration and a role model to many young children at his Karate Dojo and they all want to be karatekas like him when they grow up. Vedant has been volunteering at his dojo by teaching and assisting in classes and karate belt exams. Additionally, he is also a certified regional referee by USA Karate. He is very passionate about Karate and wants to continue practicing and competing even after going to College. He aspires to start a karate club when he joins the College and starting his own Karate Dojo eventually is his dream.
Vedant is an accomplished athlete, representing the USA in International competitions in Karate
Kaveri J. Krishnamoorthy
12th grade
Newton, MA
Kaveri has shown remarkable accomplishments in the areas of intellectual pursuit, leadership, and community service. Throughout her high school years, Kaveri has achieved remarkable success in various areas, demonstrating her exceptional drive and dedication. These outstanding accomplishments highlight her exceptional intellectual abilities, leadership skills, commitment to community engagement, and artistic talent. Kaveri has demonstrated that she is an outstanding student, with an almost perfect GPA, and who has a strong passion and desire to learn. She thrives in taking the most challenging courses and excelling in them. With more than eight AP courses and a college-level math course by the end of senior year, she demonstrates academic excellence. Her teachers indicate that she is not just driven by a desire to achieve high grades, but shows a genuine desire to learn and make the class a wonderful learning environment for herself and her classmates. In her Junior year, she was recognized for outstanding academic achievement in Science Outstanding Academic Achievement Certificate (Science), Newton South High School, 2023. Awarded to nine (out of over 400) students in the Junior year.
Kaveri’s long list of regional, state, and national level debate accomplishments demonstrates her passion for debate and the extraordinary skills in research, critical thinking, and communication that debate helped develop. Below are a few of the recent accolades that she has received, in conjunction with her debate partner:
- State Champion: Winner of the all-state 2023 Massachusetts Speech & Debate League Public Forum Debate Tournament (March 2023).
- 49th Annual Harvard National Forensics Tournament, Cambridge, MA (Feb 2023)–Quarterfinalist (one of the top 8 teams among 315 who competed).
- 48th Annual Harvard National Forensics Tournament, Cambridge, MA (Feb 2022)–Finalist (one of the top 2 teams among 190 who competed).
- NCFL Grand National Tournament, Washington, D.C. (May 2022)—Quarterfinalist (top 8 among 318 teams competing).
- National Speech and Debate Association (NSDA) Academic All-American Award: Awarded to fewer than 2% of NSDA members for academic excellence and competitive success in debate or speech.
In addition, as a testament to her outstanding accomplishments as a debater and to her leadership skills, she was selected to serve as a captain of the Newton South Speech and Debate Team in 2023-2024. She is the winner of the 2022 Sophomore Speech Competition (March 2022) at Newton South High School. First among over 400 students who competed; Final Round Judged by: Principal, Vice-Principal, and Mayor of the City of Newton, Ruth Ann Fuller. Her speech topic was “Racial Disparities in U.S. Healthcare”
Kaveri’s interest in learning about research was peaked through a course entitled ‘Statistics in the Real World with R’ that she took in summer 2021 through the Brown University Pre-College Program. Her passion for research was further enhanced when she got an opportunity to experience conducting research first-hand through the following summer internships:
- Research Assistant/Intern to a professor at Harvard Medical School/Harvard College. She worked on projects related to public health and air pollution in India. Summer 2023.
- Summer Visiting Scholar, Feinstein Institutes for Medical Research/Northwell Health, Long Island, NY. Worked with a professor at the Donald and Barbara Zucker School of Medicine at Hofstra University/Northwell. She worked on projects related to racial equity, the environment, and their association with maternal-fetal medicine. Summer 2022.
Due to her self-directed efforts, and through her research experience, Kaveri co-authored a paper that was presented at the Society for Maternal-Fetal Medicine 42nd Annual Scientific Meeting in San Franciso in February 2023, and is currently under review at a medical journal. In addition, in 2021, she co-authored a funding proposal submitted to MIT, “Convolutional neural networks to detect and classify cancerous skin lesions”. Although the proposal did not receive funding, it provided a great experience in writing a competitive proposal toward a research objective.
As a Captain of the Newton South Public Forum Debate Team, she manages a debate team of over 45 novices; formulates comprehensive curriculum; generates practice plans and run practice 5 times a week. She is also Co-President of Aspirations in Medicine (AIM), a club dedicated to promoting diversity and inclusion for students interested in medicine and health sciences. AIM hosts guest speakers in STEM, connects students with volunteer opportunities, and provides mentoring and outreach opportunities. She is Head of Resources for Outreach Debate, which aims to facilitate an international community of public speakers that offer globalized education and eye-opening experiences to both mentors and students. She created free resources for over 2000 aspiring, underserved debaters in 53 cities across 15 countries and helped run free debate camps for over 250 debaters.
She is also part of the Newton Youth Commission, a volunteer body of youth and adults appointed by the Mayor to work on issues related to youth in the Newton community. The commission aims to implement programs and policies to meet the opportunities, challenges, and issues of Newton youth. She has worked on Bike Lane Initiatives with the City of Newton and Safe Routes to Schools to implement protective bike lanes and safer transportation access for youth. Finally, she has nurtured her artistic talents through the practice of dance and violin. She is a student of Bharatanatyam (Indian Classical Dance) for the last 12 years and has played violin in the highly competitive Boston Youth Symphony Orchestra (BYSO).
Her commitment to academic excellence, extracurricular involvement, and the betterment of her community showcases her dedication and zest for life. Her passion serves as a driving force in everything she does, leaving a lasting impression on those who get to know her.
Eva Mehta
9th grade
Lexington, MA
Eva is a true entrepreneur with a passion for art, science and baking. At the age of 12, she started her own business through a two-pronged approach, that combines all 3 of these passions: selling baked/sugar goods of all kinds. Eva is inspired by her sisters and her close friend’s food allergies. She specializes in providing allergy-friendly custom designed desserts. Follow her on instagram for a sampling of her creations. Her dessert creation won Best Dessert Creation at IAGB’s Republic day event. She also won the Shark Tank pitch competition at the same event.
Eva has also combined her passion for baking with science by developing a new product line called Sweet Science. The mission of this product line is to use baking to teach science to children. She creates and sells pre-measured baking kits that guide children on creating delicious desserts while teaching them science. Over the past 2 years, Eva has generated $4000 in sales with minimal marketing. Her 90+ unique customers include orders from several businesses such as UKG & Workbar.
Eva has won several awards over the last 2 year, including IAGB’s Republic Day event in 2022. For Best Dessert Creation & Winner of Shark Tank Pitch Competition; the Newton Children’s business fair in 2022 for Best Business & Crowd Favorite for “Sweet Science”; the Acton Children’s Fair 2022’s Talent Award; and Greatest Baker November 2022’s ‘Top Ten’.
Another of her other significant accomplishments is being featured in a TedX Natick Talk by Cheryl Hamilton for her storytelling when she was 10.
In addition to her business interests, Eva was an extremely active member of her Middle School Ubuntu club, responsible for murals designed throughout Diamond Middle School in 2022. Eva is also volunteering at the library to help digitize content as part of their transformation project. In addition to this, she is also a black belt in Karate and was part of the Hayden Dolphins swim team for several years.
Isha Mehta
12th grade
North Andover, MA
As a rising senior at North Andover High school, Isha Mehta challenges herself by taking advanced classes, various leadership roles, and being part of multiple sports and extracurricular activities. Her talents stretch beyond just academics, and her well roundedness is demonstrated through her involvement in every aspect of the community. At her school, one of her leadership roles is being Vice President of the National Honors Society, a club which includes only the top percentage of the school. She organizes volunteer opportunities for students and various events. She is also part of the track and field team and enjoys being part of the school running community. After being part of ANA Synchronized swim team for many years and having won various awards, she is now captain of her high school varsity swim & dive team and enjoys the leadership role by guiding her team. She is the president of few other clubs, including Best Buddies, which is a club involving kids in her high school with intellectual developmental disabilities. She’s planned events for them, and recently attended their national leadership conference at Indiana University.
Isha is also the president of her school’s Race Amity club, where she has led weekly discussions educating her peers about real world topics regarding racism, discrimination, and inequality. Her urge for connecting with her identity and culture has blossomed because of her work in the Race Amity club and led her to performing her Arangetram this past summer.
Her Arangetram, which was a two-hour solo performance highlighted her mastery of skills in Bharatnatyam, Kuchipudi and Odissi style of classical dance, and was a pivotal point in her dance journey. She was taught under the guidance of Guru Smt. Neena Gulati, founder of the Triveni School of Dance for more than 12 years. This recital was essentially a graduation for her journey in classical dance, but she continues Bollywood dance as well. Isha has been doing Bollywood dance for over 10 years and has won various competition including solo completion at Swaraag. She has been an integral part of Devika Fusion Dances’ Travel Team, where she has gone to collegiate Bollywood competitions and has placed first in two of them. This year, she has been selected as captain of her travel team.
Dance is a huge part of Isha’s life, as she also founded and runs a dance school called Isha’s School of Dance, where she choreographs and teaches elementary level girls weekly. Her students have performed at multiple cultural events and shows. She donates 25% of the proceeds to the Manav Sadhna as well as We Care Charity.
One of her biggest accomplishments this school year was receiving the League of Women Voters Book Award, where she was one of the few juniors in her class that earned an award. This award is presented to one student every year, and the recipient is on the top of their class and shows a strong sense of community within the school.
In addition to these accomplishments, she also takes great interest in neuroscience and learning about the brain. Over the past 2 years, she wrote and published a fictional story based off a recurring dream she had. This book, “Recurring” is published on Amazon, and includes her interests of the brain and how it works.
In 2022, Isha interned with Circadian Health. They provide sleep coaching to athletes and teaches them how to develop and customize a routine and sleep plan for their maximum success. Her love for healthcare continues, as she strives to learn new things about the mind and body every day. For the past two summer, she has observed research work on genetics with a scientist and faculty of Harvard Medical School, Stuti Mehta, DPhil at Orkin Lab at the Boston Children’s Hospital. They worked on a research project regarding gene cloning together.
Krish Mehta
6th grade
Wellesley, MA
Starting at a young age, Krish has always shown great passion and commitment towards problem-solving. This started with completing a 500 piece puzzle at age 4, and a 1000 piece puzzle at age 8. In the middle it included building with Lego Technic, finding new and innovative ways to leverage all the mechanical pieces, teaching himself to play the piano, and learning the fundamentals of coding. What is most impressive is how he has turned this passion into a way to fuel others.
At the age of 8, he taught himself how to solve the Rubik’s cube by watching online tutorials. He then turned around and taught his younger brother aged 6. After moving from New Jersey to Massachusetts at the age of 10, he wanted to share this interest with others, and began teaching a class at the local Wellesley Public Library. For one hour weekly sessions over the course of 7 weeks, he engaged a room filled with other grade schoolers. He showed them the magic of the cube, including all the algorithms and different engineering behind it. More importantly, he served as a role model to others like him- the students who have a love for Russian Math, who love Science, who dream of going to MIT. In May 2022, he was one of the few 5th graders who participated in his school STEAM fair, where he spent weeks building a CNC machine. The other children were lining up to see what this was, how it worked, and simply the power of following your passion to find your purpose.
Anika Mittal
11th grade
Reading, MA
Anika Mittal is a rising junior at Phillips Academy in Andover, MA. She is a multi-talented youth who takes pride in volunteering in community-based activities and enjoys the performing arts including traditional Indian Bharatanatyam dance and contemporary/modern/hip-hop/jazz dance. She is an advanced STEM girl and has won many national/regional prizes in Math/Computer Science competitions. She has a number of leadership roles across various clubs inside and outside of school.
Anika is a Youth Ambassador at Kavya Foundation, a India-based nonprofit organization that strives to address and raise awareness regarding elderly loneliness as it is prevalent in our society. As an ambassador, she facilitates conferences discussing the issue of elderly solitude and to generate ideas on how we can combat this issue. She creates digital posters and advertises them through social media platforms to spread awareness. Anika interviewed the elderly in old age homes to understand their struggles and provided them with digital tools to connect with other seniors.
As a part of Stanford Statistics for Social Good, Anika used her experience and knowledge of data science working on developing a software model that uses machine learning/AI to see how to help prevent drug trafficking in underprivileged communities using government HIDTA dataset for analysis and model training.
She is a part of several letter-writing initiatives, including Andover Bread Loaf Pen pals, writing weekly letters to students in under-resourced communities to build confidence in their reading and writing skills, and inspire a growth mindset to bring the best out of them and ‘Adopt a Platoon’, writing weekly letters to soldiers in the army to spread joy, happiness and show gratitude. Anika volunteers at her local food pantry to deliver groceries to home-bound elderly and performs classical Indian Bharatanatyam and musical theater dance at old age homes to spread cheer, entertain, and provide the elderly with a sense of community.
Anika is Co-president of Students in Medicine, and organizes weekly club meetings such as hosting guest speakers from the medical field and organizing panel discussions during Substance Awareness week. She has partnered with the Red Cross Hospital and organized a blood drive attracting over 100 donors and has helped arrange CPR certification training.
As Mathematics and Computer Science Advisor of PA Research Institute, Anika published a research magazine highlighting the latest research from students doing independent undergraduate-level projects. She is Finance Manager and Outreach Director of INTEGIRLS Boston and Concord and organized math competitions for students identifying as female or nonbinary in hopes to bridge the gender gap in STEM, where she welcomed participants from all over the country, handled competition logistics, and secured sponsorships. As the Outreach Director for the Math Open at Andover (MOAA), Anika is currently organizing and securing sponsors for the 6th annual MOAA, a middle school math competition, which welcomed over 1000 competitors from all around the world last year, and expects a similar turnout this year.
Over the summer, she participated in the MIT Beaver Works Summer Institution: Medlytics (2023), a highly selective 4-week-long intensive data science program run by MIT Beaver Works. Mastered concepts in Python, machine learning, git, GitHub, and statistics. Developed projects that use ML to analyze mammograms to detect breast cancers, classify sleep stages, and predict the evolution of stem cells. She was also a Student Researcher at Tufts University, where she worked on coating THP-1 cells (leukemic macrophages) with a modified silk coating to see if they’ll live longer and if we can alter their polarity with the coating and observed neurons being cultured for experimentation.
Anika has won several awards, including: American Computer Science League Finalist (2023), AIME Qualifier (2022-2023) twice, AMC 10 Distinction Award (2023), Pi Math Competition Honor Roll (2023), AP Scholar (2023), ARML 4th place team (2022), Purple Comet 2nd place state (2021), Math Kangaroo 1st place nationally (2020), MOEMS Gold Pin (2018-2021), IMLEM Division Award Winner (2019-2021) and the John Hopkins CTY SCAT Math: 99th percentile, Two Grand Honors Awards Winner
Disha Mudenur
12th grade
Hopkinton, MA
Disha is an impressive student and has done much as a student throughout high school. She has won the MICAA Gold Award (2022), and won the International VEX Community Service Award (2021, 2022) in the VEX Robotics World Championships. She also won the International Innovate Award (2022) at the Robotics Worlds, winning her town’s first in-person international award. She won first place in the science fair at her school’s competition and also won 1st place for 11th grade at the National Invention Convention. At the same Convention, she also was awarded the License Potential Award and also the Most Innovative.
Disha is also active in the community. After 14 years of dancing and performing at many New England events, she is a passionate Bollywood Dance Teacher. She also gives back to the community, whether it’s by placing hundreds of rocks with messages of hope around our town or tutoring underprivileged children, she really cares about others.
Adrita Mukherji
11th grade
Arlington, MA
Adrita Mukherji, an incoming Junior in Arlington High School, is a hard working, kind and compassionate leader who has been involved in social change ever since she was a little girl helping out at various events like attending regular meetings, helping out at sustainable development talks, concerts and fundraisers with Association For India’s Development. Currently, she helps out with regular communications with the annual TeamAIDAsha half/full marathon program with all the runners in the program. She has worked on several multimedia projects like voiceover and documentary support for the organization.
Over the summer, she has taken her love for the environment and put it to practice in her summer internship as a Eco-Waste intern with Zero Waste Arlington, an advocacy and education-focused group, working with the Town of Arlington and state levels to effect change and reduce waste. She has been auditing, data gathering, awareness building, documenting and supporting organizing efforts by various departments and town officials on a multitude of projects such as textile recycling, storm water management, waste diversion and recycling.
Adrita has been a competitive dancer since she was 9 years old, going to several regional competitions performing in jazz, contemporary, lyrical, tap and hip hop styles throughout the year as part of Alton Street Dance. She has won many awards during these competitions doing group, duo and solo performances. This summer, she has taken on a second internship to work with a local non-profit, South Asian Worker Center to teach Eastern and Western dance to children from the Nepali community in Everett to help bring joy into their lives via the medium of dance. She hopes to work towards a more just and equitable world where every dream has a chance to blossom.
Rayna Parikh
12th grade
Andover, MA
Rayna has consistently been a top performer in her class throughout her high school years. She is enrolled in rigorous and challenging courses including numerous Honors and AP classes. She has demonstrated exceptional aptitude across different subject areas earning high scores (4.0) in AP Biology and AP Statistics. She has been chosen as a member of the National Honors Society, recognizing her exceptional academic accomplishments. She furthered her studies through the University of Connecticut’s 2-week Summer Pre-Med and Anatomy/Physiology programs, where she developed a deeper knowledge of Human Anatomy and career options in the field of Health Care.
Rayna possesses an extraordinary musical talent that captivates all who have the privilege of witnessing her performances. She started learning Violin, Piano and Indian Classical Vocals at the very early age of 5. Over the years, she has made Piano/Keyboard her primary music skill. Her dedication to music, coupled with her artistic sensibility, has allowed her to excel in various musical pursuits. She earned the prestigious DipABRSM (Diploma of The Associated Board of the Royal Schools of Music) international Certification for Piano in Spring of 2023. The Associated Board of Royals School of Music is the UK’s largest Music Education body and is recognized for its globally renowned exams and diplomas. Taking an ARSM performance diploma offers an opportunity to develop and demonstrate performance skills, such as technique, control, interpretation, communication and delivery, explore new repertoire and create and perform an extended program of music. Her commitment and dedication for 8 years culminated in her clearing all levels of proficiency and achieving the distinguished diploma. She also has performed as a Keyboardist since her sophomore year at the Real School of Music’s Advanced Ensemble. It’s a year-long program with a weekly commitment of 4 hours of band practice culminating in performances in the local community, including at the iconic Regent Theatre in the Boston area, and professional studio recordings. ABRSM gave her the foundation of classical Piano, but participating in AE skyrocketed her musical abilities and repertoire to perform a variety of genres. Her passion for music knows no bounds, and her ability to convey emotions through melodies is truly amazing.
Rayna founded Chords for Kindness (to provide music as therapy and as a medium to bring joy to seniors and people in need. She reached out to local Assisted Living Centers for Seniors including Bridges by Epoch and Atria Marland in Andover, MA, and is now a weekly presence at these centers playing live music and creating a beautiful bond with the seniors. She has also performed for non-profit organizations like FISCO (Friends of Indian Senior Center Organization) in Burlington, MA, playing a variety of Bollywood classics and culturally connecting with senior citizens.
Outside of music, her inclination to help people in need led her to volunteer at Ironstone Farm, Andover MA where she provides Equine-based Therapy to children with special needs on a weekly basis. This experience has been an eye-opener for her to see how horse-based therapy can help children with special needs learn to walk, and people who did not speak before – including those on the autism spectrum – and improve the lives of others struggling with life skills. She also volunteers on Saturdays at Lawrence General Hospital in the Pediatrics department where she stocks hospital rooms, cleans and makes beds, and assists the staff, thus gaining first-hand experience in the medical field. Rayna also coaches children with special needs to participate in track and field events. She teaches them valuable skills, fosters teamwork, and works with other coaches to create an inclusive environment. She also takes each child’s abilities and challenges into consideration. Ultimately, Rayna empowers children to thrive in sports and life, building confidence and friendships.
With unwavering patience and passion for music, Rayna has been providing Piano lessons to young children as well as adults since her freshman year (2020). Her students not only admire her musical aptitude but also cherish the genuine care and support she offers. Many have continued their lessons for several years, a testament to the strong rapport that she cultivates. The impact of Rayna’s patient mentoring goes beyond the realm of music education. One of her students is a middle-schooler with Cerebral Palsy and partial blindness. Rayna’s patient and compassionate way of tutoring has instilled a sense of self-belief and confidence in that child and her student is now enrolled in Berklee Institute for Accessible Arts Education. She still continues to pursue piano lessons with Rayna.
Adithya Puninchittaya
12th grade
Bedford, NH
Adithya Puninchittaya is a rising senior at Bedford High School, in Bedford, NH with a 4.55 weighted GPA. He is an IB Diploma Candidate and is immersed in all of the highest rigor courses that his highschool offers. In school, he is the President of the BHS math team, Co-president of the BHS Science Olympiad Team, and President of the BHS National Latin Honor Society (NLHS). In highschool, he has been awarded the BHS IB Math Department award in 2022 and received the Rensselaer Medal in 2023.
Adithya’s highschool journey has been shaped by his unwavering curiosity, dedication to sharing knowledge, and compassionate nature, which have propelled him to excel in various domains. He has been a member of Science Olympiad since freshman year and has won several state-level awards over the past 3 years for events ranging from Disease Detectives (1st place 2021+2022, 2nd place 2023) which is about the basics of epidemiology to Dynamic Planet (2nd place 2023) which is about earth sciences. He’s dedicated to the success of the BHS Science Olympiad team, and at competitions, frequently fills in for open available slots.
Adithya’s commitment to Latin has been demonstrated through his achievements in various National Latin exams, including earning a silver medal for the National Latin Exam and Bronze for the National Latin Vocabulary Exam. Additionally, he was recently awarded as the co-winner for the inaugural Classical Association of New England Motto Contest, where he utilized his skills to create a Latin motto that emphasized the idea that sharing knowledge and understanding can have a transformative effect on the community. Adithya has experience being a treasurer for NLHS at Bedford High School. In his role, he took the initiative to fundraise through candy sales during movie nights. He diligently organized the money for the field trip to St. Anselm for Classics day and deposited excess funds to the NLHS bank account. He is currently the president of the BHS chapter of NLHS and is the Treasurer for the New Hampshire Junior Classical League where manages the NHJCL’s bank account, finances, and fundraising.
During the pandemic, Adithya witnessed the strain on the healthcare system and the growing demand for medical professionals. Inspired by this experience, he delved into a Coursera course on Computational Epidemiology offered by Johns Hopkins University. The fusion of epidemiology and computational science captivated him, recognizing its potential to revolutionize our preparedness against future pandemics. In the summer of 2021, Adithya’s curiosity led him to conduct research on SARS-CoV-2 variants and their interactions with animal ACE2 receptors, using computational biochemistry techniques in his project “Computational Analysis on SARS-CoV-2 Variants’ Binding with Vertebrate ACE2”. His research not only provided valuable insights into animals’ susceptibility to the virus but also highlighted the predictive capabilities of computational biology. Adithya has published his abstract on SARS-CoV-2 and animals in the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) and is a Fellow of the American Junior Academy of Sciences (AJAS).
Adithya has presented his research at the state NH Science Fair, where he placed first in his category of biology and third in best of fair. This qualified him to attend the 2022 International Science and Engineering Fair (ISEF) in Atlanta, GA. This was a groundbreaking achievement as the first student in the history of his highschool to qualify and be named an ISEF Finalist, showcasing his determination and passion for scientific exploration. In the summer of 2022, Adithya continued with computational biology research, investigating the efficacy of neuraminidase inhibitors across neuraminidase subtypes. With his most recent project, he won 2nd place in his category of Biochemistry, and won the Air Force Research Laboratory Award at NH State Science Fair.
Outside of school, Adithya’s most important activities revolve around leadership and community engagement. Through his involvement in Boy Scouts, he developed essential leadership skills, gradually taking on positions of responsibility and transferring his knowledge to younger Scouts. Adithya’s dedication to leadership extended beyond Scouts to his role as an Assistant Senior Patrol Leader, where he coordinates with the troop and motivates fellow Scouts on their journey to Eagle Scout. Adithya’s leadership qualities were evident in his Eagle Project, where he constructed two wheelchair-accessible picnic tables for Camp Allen, enabling individuals with disabilities to enjoy the outdoors without limitations. In his Eagle Project, he taught younger Scouts valuable skills and employed effective project management techniques to complete the project on time by organizing the construction in parallel, much akin to a car manufacturing assembly line.
Adithya’s community involvement and commitment to sharing his knowledge extends beyond Scouts and is evident in his teaching endeavors. Adithya identified the problem of declining membership in the Bedford High School Math Team, of which he is the President of. He started an after school math club for students in the McKelvie Intermediate School to bridge the gap between school education and competitive math, fostering interest and understanding among students. Through his weekly classes that he has held for the past two years, he has not only deepened his own knowledge of math concepts but has also inspired other students to excel in competitive math.
Adithya’s leadership and teaching skills have positively impacted his school district, as evidenced by increased math proficiency scores and an increase in participation in the Middle School math team. In the future, he hopes that the framework of his Intermediate school math club will lay the foundation for a stronger Bedford High School Math Team. Throughout the past seven years, Adithya has participated in various levels of FIRST: FIRST Lego League (FLL), FIRST Tech Challenge (FTC), and FIRST Robotics Competition (FRC). While there is an FTC and FRC team at Bedford middle and high school, respectively, there wasn’t a pipeline program for FLL. Seeing this, he conducted 10 sessions of FLL workshops at the town library for 60+ children in grades 4 through 8 to introduce individual aspects of the FIRST FLL program. Through the workshops, Adithya sparked interest not only in STEM skills but also spread the FIRST core values. These workshops directly inspired 3 FLL teams to form in the town of Bedford.
Adithya has over 500 hours in community service. He volunteers as a Messenger at the Southern New Hampshire Medical Center where he interacts with patients and assists them at the time of discharge. In his role, he also delivers flowers and other items to patients and families throughout the hospital. He also volunteers as a Lab Assistant at the Catholic Medical Center in Manchester, NH where he registers patients for bloodwork. Adithya wants to be a physician in his future, and plans on majoring in Biochemistry, examining the intersection of Biology and Chemistry on the pre-med track.
Arush Shangari
9th grade
North Reading, MA
Arush Shangari is a 9th Grader in St Johns Prep School, Massachusetts. Arush has been involved in various volunteer organizations. He ran Ekal Python Programming workshop in Aug 2022 and taught Highschool and middle school kids. All proceeds/money went to ” EKAL” kids education in rural India. Arush has worked with The Boston Pledge as a student voluntee in the Boston area (Including MIT, Bentley and Harvard University) from June 26th to July 8TH 2023. During his time with them he assisted with variety of tasks, including writing reports on prestigious universities in Boston area and helping with logistics for a visit from IIT Kanpur delegates from India. He is valuable asset to this organization.
He is also involved in WHA (Wholistic Health Alliance) Fooditude organization. WHA is a non-profit organization that connects holistic health practitioners. Their goal is to encourage collaboration and networking within the community. They aim to educate and share information about simple tools for preventing health problems and promoting overall well-being. WHA has several projects such as TMHI (Teen Mental Health Initiative) which was developed by the Youth Brigade (YB). He helped in creating website, content, blogs and video material.
Which his primary academic interests involve Maths, data science, coding, statistics and geography. He was the winner of “International Math Competition 2022” and won the medal and certificate. Arush is a public speaker and recently got featured in “Ted-Ed Student Talks” on YouTube. He is involved in school debate clubs and is a YouTuber, his channel is “Random Topics Trending”. He is a regional winner of “Science Olympiad” and “Geography Bee” competitions 2021 and 2022. He was runner up of IAGB Shark Tank 2020 where he presented the idea of “Online Education During Pandemic”. His hobbies include basketball, tennis, creating YouTube content and playing with his pup.
Medhita Sinha
12th grade
Acton, MA
Known for her exemplary works in Mithila art, Medhita’s works have been displayed at at the Boston MFA, MGH Cancer Center and other Massachussetts museums. She is a winner of the state Congressional Art competition through which her art has been selected and displayed the US Capitol building for one year. Another of her art pieces won the silver key award at the Scholastic Art competition. Medhita has donated her artworks for non-profits like United India Association and Vision-aid.
Academically, she has earned the President’s Gold Community Service Award and President’s Bronze Community Service Award, ‘Experimenting with Epilepsy: Effects of M. Alba, C. Pluricaulis, W. Somnifera, and S. Radiatum on mutant UNC-49’: Placed 3rd place in Region IV. She has also raised $1,200 leading a fundraiser for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society.
Medhita is founder of De-Vlp, a learning platform that focuses on spreading open education to homeless shelters and Title 1 schools.
