BOSTON–India Association of Greater Boston announced that Richa Pillai and Hari Narayanan have won the IAGB Community Youth Excellence Award 2019.
“We received an overwhelming number of nominations from the exceptionally talented and accomplished students in the New England area. It was a very challenging task to select just two winners. We wish the very best of luck to all the nominees and winners,” said Sanjay Gowda, Vice President of IAGB.
Pillai is a rising senior at Groton School in Groton, MA and Hari Narayanan, a rising Senior at The Roxbury Latin School, Boston. Both will be recognized at India Day Festival 2019 on August 17th at the Boston City Hall Plaza.
Pillai is not only exceptional in her academics, but a great contributor to her school and her community. She earned a perfect score on her ACT, and won the Best Mathematics Scholar award in her school last year. She is an Admissions prefect, Communications prefect, Math club head, avid debater, and on the board of both Community Engagement and Diversity in her school.
Following her passion for computer science, Pillai has used Python to create and develop a chatbot on Slack, which enables basic conversation and provides information for students and teachers. Committed to helping others, Pillai teaches underprivileged students STEM at an elementary school, and is in the midst of opening a library at a local temple. In addition, she works as a coding camp counselor, tutor, and marketing intern at a startup.
Narayanan is a rising Senior at The Roxbury Latin School. Outstanding in academics, Narayanan will serve as editor-in-chief for their Tripod newspaper in 2019-20. He feels grateful to have been admitted to both the MIT-PRIMES program in 2018 and the Telluride Association Summer Program in 2019, the premier computer science research and humanities programs, respectively, for high schoolers in the country.
He is a 4th generation Carnatic (classical South Indian) musician who has been learning and performing in India and the Greater Boston area for several years now. Narayanan won 18 gold, silver key, and honorable mention awards for writing in multiple genres in the prestigious Scholastic competition for students in 2018 and 2019, receiving the most individual awards in the state of Massachusetts.
Narayanan is an active volunteer for Access Braille, an organization that strives to provide books and magazines to the visually impaired. He is the editor-in-chief of Wonders of Touch magazine produced for children who are visually disabled. Through his activities, be they in science, music, or writing, Narayanan endeavors to engage and give back to the community around him.
India Day Festival 2019 will take place on August 17th at the Boston City Hall Plaza. Event is FREE entry for all. Boston City Hall Plaza is a sprawling open venue boasting easy access to transportation via commuter and subway as well as easy access to local Boston attractions. Don’t miss this wonderful opportunity to join in and celebrate the pride of India in the heart of Boston.
India Day event will be held from 3:00 pm to 8:00 pm at the Boston City Hall Plaza. For more information please contact us iagb@iagb.org
India Association of Greater Boston (IAGB) is the oldest and one of the leading Indian-American organizations in New England. It serves the Indian-American communities in the Greater Boston area – Massachusetts, New Hampshire and Rhode Island. IAGB strives to foster a strong Indian-American social, cultural and community presence in New England.
