With a SAT score of 2,360 out of a maximum possible 2,400, Pulkit Agarwal (18), hitherto a class XII student of The Doon School, Dehradun (TDS, estb.1935), has received admission and scholarship offers valued at $61,000 (Rs.38.8 lakh) from 15 US universities including seven Ivy League varsities — Harvard, Princeton, Columbia, UPenn, Brown, Cornell and Dartmouth. SAT (formerly the Scholastic Aptitude Test) is the common admission exam administered worldwide by the College Board, a US-based not-for-profit organisation, for undergrad admissions into American and other universities around the world.
The elder of two children of Pilibhit (Uttar Pradesh)-based medical practitioners Dr. Peeyush, a radiologist, and pathologist Dr. Neelam Agarwal, Pulkit has accepted the Harvard offer and will join the top-ranked university’s economics and politics undergrad programme in September.
An academic topper who averaged 95 percent in the class X CISCE board exam, Pulkit finished school as debates captain and was adjudged the best EFL (English as a foreign language) speaker at the World Debating Championship, Lithuania, 2014. This all-rounder also dabbles in theatre and plays cricket.
Admitted into TDS in 2009, Pulkit ascribes his super SAT score to the holistic education he received in the school, which is consistently rated as the country’s best all-boys boarding school in the annual EducationWorld India School Rankings. “Doon’s time-tested academic learning and character building programmes develop students’ confidence and leadership qualities. Moreover the career counselling programme at Doon is excellent and helps us identify our aptitudes and submit detailed admission applications,” says Pulkit in an unreserved endorsement of his alma mater.
Looking ahead to his four-year undergrad programme at Harvard, Pulkit is confident it will equip him to serve India on his return. “I want to apply my learning of public policy and government to help our country grow into a developed nation. There’s great potential in 21st century India. I want to help unlock it,” he says.
Wind beneath your wings!
Bharati Thakore (Dehradun)
Vibish k. Balaji
Hosur (Tamil Nadu)-based teenage water conservation activist Vibish Kashyap Balaji (14) is the new star ambassador of Project Sunlight, a CSR (corporate social responsibility) initiative of the Mumbai-based consumer products behemoth Hindustan Unilever Ltd (HUL, annual revenue: Rs.1413,847 crore). Launched in 2013, the objective of Project Sunlight is to “make sustainable living desirable and achievable by inspiring people to look at the possibility of a world where everybody lives well and within the natural limits of the planet”..gif)
Currently a class X student of the CBSE-affiliated TVS Academy, Hosur (TVSA, estb. 1990), Vibish has been an active participant in the school’s go-green initiatives, planting saplings and cleaning lakes in and around Hosur. In 2013 while still in class VIII, this green crusader signed up with Reap Benefit, a Bangalore-based NGO, which is advising TVSA on water saving and development projects. “Reap Benefit workshops are unique and provide a platform to ideate and implement a whole range of water conservation ideas,” says Vibish.
Following an informal Q&A conducted by representatives of Stratum Films, commissioned by HUL, Vibish was pleasantly surprised to find himself shortlisted as a Project Sunlight ambassador. Three months later, after his speech was approved by the Los Angeles-based director of Stratum Films, Vibish played the role of a village boy persuading village residents to practise water hygiene in an ad film.
The younger son of Balaji Mallikarjunan, a senior manager in a private firm, and Sai Priya, a homemaker, Vibish gives due credit to the TVSA management for its environment awareness. “I have also been greatly inspired by my elder brother Rishi, and the founder of Reap Benefit Kuldeep Dantewadia,” he says.
A consistent academic topper, Vibish has set his sights on medical studies. Currently burdened with preparations for his class X CBSE exams, in the new academic year Vibish plans to utilise his prize money (Rs.5 lakh) to fund a sanitation drive in government schools. “I will work with Reap Benefit in ten schools in and around Hosur which lack hygiene facilities. Together, we intend to implement sustainable grey water harvesting systems in these schools,” he enthuses.
Way to go bro!
Paromita Sengupta (Bangalore)