Saranya Srinivasan is Merit Scholar

Saranya Srinivasan looks through a microscope in the biology lab at YHS. Biology has been one of her favorite subjects at YHS.

Saranya Srinivasan, a Yosemite High School senior, has been selected as a winner of a National Merit $2500 Scholarship. There are a total of 2500 scholarships given nationwide.

 

More than one million students entered the 2002 National Merit Scholarship Pro­gram; about 16,000 of those were named semifinalists.

Saranya, who celebrated her 16th birthday during her senior year at YHS, has been accepted at several universities throughout the United States, including Northwestern (her first choice), Harvard, the medical school at Boston University, Johns Hopkins, University of California at Berkeley, UC Los Angeles and UC San Diego.

She says Northwestern has admitted her to its medical school out of high school. If she maintains a 2.7 grade point average for three years she will then enter medical school. She will complete her education to become a doctor in a total of seven years.

She calls this a “once in a lifetime opportunity you can’t turn down,” The competition to get into medical school is so tough, she doesn't want to miss this opportunity.

“I’m currently searching for about $280,000,” she says. It will cost about $40,000 a year for the seven years to attend North­western. She has received some scholarships, but not nearly enough to cover this amount.

Saranya says she is thinking about specializing in pediatrics because she “loves children.” However, she says she will go to medical school and “test out the waters” to see what she likes best.

 

Full IB diploma candidate

In addition to top grades at YHS, Saranya is a full International Baccalaureate Dip­loma candidate and she has attained almost-perfect scores on the Scholastic Aptitude Test [SAT]. Out of a possible 1,600 points on the SAT I, she scored 1550 with a perfect verbal score of 800 and a math score of 750.

She has also been awarded a Bank of America 2002 Achieve­ment Award in science and math.

On the PSAT [preliminary SAT] she scored in the 99th percentile nationwide. She has scored consistently high in the specialized SAT II tests, IB tests and Advanced Place­ment tests. She has been on the “A” Honor Roll at YHS since 1998, and is a life member of the California Scholarship Fed­era­tion.

She has received high honors on biology, mathematics and Spanish Golden State exams and honors in English composition and chemistry.

She says English and biology are her favorite classes, adding that she has “learned so much” in both subjects.

 

Academic Decathlete

Saranya was on the YHS Academic De­cathlon Team for three years. She says being allowed to join the team as a sophomore was “a miracle.” She says being a part of the award-winning AD team was a great experience and she made lots of life-long friends. She was a consistent medalist in the AD at the county and state levels.

She has also received awards in the Mock Trial competition, the Madera Young Writers' Conference, History Day and the American High School Mathematics Exam.

She has been active in tennis and badminton at YHS and was named to the Central Sequoia League Academic All League for Varsity Girls Tennis in 1998-99 and 1999-00.

She has been named Student of the Month at YHS and by the Rotary Club.

Sarnaya was named Governor’s Scholar in 2000-01. She is listed in the 2000-02 edition of Who’s Who Among American High School Students, and received the United States Achievement Academy Award in foreign language in 1999-00 and 2001-02. She received the Secretary of the Navy Scholastic Leadership Award in 2000-01.

She is, or has been, a member of the Interact Club, Key Club, Spanish Club,  Inter­national Connections Club, Concert/Pep Band and Community Band. She played the clarinet in a woodwind quintet in 2001.

Saranya is currently doing research at Children’s Hospital Central California.

She has worked as a tutor to high school students in algebra, geometry and biology and she has tutored a seventh-grade student in mathematics, English, spelling and science.

In her “spare time” she volunteers for a number of local events ranging from Heritage Days at the Fresno Flats Historical Park to raising money for the Fallen Heroes Fund that donated more than $500 to the victims of the September 11 terrorist attack in New York.

Both of Saranya’s parents were born in India but she was born in the United States. She lived in Oakhurst until she was in the fourth grade, then the family moved around the United States before returning to Oak­hurst for her freshman year.

She says she is very grateful to the teachers and counselors at YHS who have been “very helpful” and who “put up with all of my recommendations.”

In the future, she hopes to live in India for a year and work as a doctor. She still has relatives there.

 

Grateful to parents

Looking back over her successful high school career, Saranya says she couldn't have been as successful without the help of many people at YHS. She says she owes a lot of her success to her parents “who always supported and encouraged me.”

She says she has learned a lot about herself in high school and, she says, she even learns from her bad experiences. When she moves away from Oakhurst, she says she will really miss her friends and, because she is younger than her classmates, she says she is “a little concerned” about living away from home.

Saranya joins her friend, Ginny Corless, a 2001 YHS graduate, as a National Merit Scholar. Ms. Corless is now a student at Massachusetts Institute of Technology [MIT] and is “doing very well and taking challenging classes,” Saranya relates.